Türkiye’s exports of furniture, paper and forestry products in the January-July period of 2023 have topped $4.58 billion according to the figures released by the Istanbul Furniture, Paper and Forest Products Exporters Association on Monday.
The furniture, paper and forestry products sector, which set its export target at $10 billion this year, realized $609 million of foreign sales in July.
At the same time, the association recalled that Türkiye’s exports in July increased by 8.4% compared to the same period of the previous year and reached the $20.09 billion figure.
The export of furniture, which carries the largest share in the sector, amounted to $343 million in July, while the total export volume of the sector from January through July totaled $2.61 billion.
Türkiye exported mostly to Iraq, Israel and the United Kingdom in the seven-month period, the data highlighted.
In this period Iraq imported furniture products worth $577.6 million from Türkiye. The neighboring country was followed by Israel, which imported some 238.6 million of furniture, paper and forestry products from the Turkish market, while the U.K. stood third with $229 million.
Germany and Iran closed the group of top five countries Türkiye exported its furniture mostly to.
During the same period, furniture exports to Russia leaped by 55.3% to reach $131.5 million, according to the data.
Erkan Özkan, president of the Istanbul Furniture, Paper and Forest Products Exporters Association told Anadolu Agency (AA) that investments in the sector accelerated as the elections were left behind, and the future of the sector got clearer.
Noting that the quieter summer season in other sectors was very advantageous for them, Özkan said: "While increasing our export rates in this process from one side, we aim to set new export strategies and reach the records we aim for in the short and medium term. To this end, we added the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Countries (OIC) Strategy to the Far Countries Strategy launched by the Trade Ministry last year and expanded our export route."
"With the delegations we will form, we will visit the OIC member countries, which has 57 members, and develop export strategies that are suitable for the needs of those countries. Although we are not weak in these markets, we have a very high chance of a larger share in exports, given the potential of the countries," he noted.
The exports from the same sector in 2022 increased by 20.8% when compared to the year earlier and peaked at $8.44 billion, reaching the highest annual figure of all time, according to Türkiye Exporters Assembly (TIM) data.