Türkiye’s exports leapt to a monthly record in March, official data highlighted on Tuesday, bouncing back from a brief fallout after devastating earthquakes that struck the southeastern region a month earlier.

Outbound shipments rose 4.4% year-over-year to $23.6 billion (TL 453.82 billion) in March, Trade Minister Mehmet Muş told a press briefing in Istanbul while announcing preliminary trade figures.

Imports, on the other hand, jumped 4.2% from a year ago to $32.1 billion, Muş said, with the overall trade volume jumping 4.3% to $55.7 billion.

These pushed the foreign trade deficit up 3.7% to $8.57 billion, according to Turkish Exporters' Assembly (TIM) figures.

Outbound shipments had dropped after two quakes on Feb. 6, which also severely hit neighboring Syria, along with aftershocks killed more than 50,000 people and flattened hundreds of thousands of buildings besides inflicting severe infrastructural damage.

The disaster severely impacted 11 key agricultural provinces affecting 15.73 million people and more than 20% of the country's food production, according to the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The region accounts for nearly 15% of agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) and contributes to almost 20% of the country’s agrifood exports.

Muş said the share of the southeastern provinces in Türkiye’s exports stood at 8.6% in 2022, stressing that the negative impact of the disaster on shipments continued in March, with a decrease.

The exports to imports coverage ratio came in at 73.4% with an annual increase of 0.1 points in March, and 85.4%, with a decrease of 9.3 points when energy data was excluded.

Muş said they predict that production activities and exports in the provinces affected by the earthquakes will continue to recover in the forthcoming period.

"Despite negativities caused by the earthquakes in production and supply, our exports increased by 4.4% in March to $23.6 billion. This figure is the highest monthly export figure of all time."

Energy imports in March totaled $6 billion, a decrease of 28.6% compared to the same period a year ago, TIM data suggested. Unprocessed gold imports totaled $1.7 billion last month, Muş said.

Rolling 12-month energy imports totaled $ 93.1 billion, down by about $2.4 billion compared to the previous month, according to the data.

Meanwhile, exports to Russia jumped 262% year-over-year to $905 million in March, TIM figures suggested, reflecting the surge in bilateral trade since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine last year sparked a flurry of Western sanctions.

Türkiye, a Black Sea neighbor of Russia and Ukraine, opposes both the war and the Western sanctions.

Last month, it halted the transit of Western-sanctioned goods to Russia after growing objections from the U.S. and Europe, according to a top export official and a diplomat.

Exports to Russia in the January-March period jumped 133% year-over-year to $2.48 billion, the data suggested.

Türkiye's over exports in the first quarter amounted to $61.6 billion, up 2.5%, while imports rose by 11.4% to $96.5 billion, Muş said.

The foreign trade gap was at $34.9 billion in the first quarter of this year, according to TIM figures.

The data revealed that Germany was the leading destination for Turkish exports in March with $2 billion, followed by the U.S. at $1.38 billion and Italy at $1.19 billion.

The main import destinations for the country in March were Russia ($3.99 billion), China ($3.78 billion) and Germany ($2.69 billion).

The EU's imports from Türkiye totaled $9.76 billion in March, while its exports to the country amounted to $10.12 billion.