Türkiye’s exports to the Middle East and Gulf countries increased by 24.8% in the first nine months of this year, with the highest exports to Iraq at $7.5 billion.

Exports to the countries, including Jordan, Yemen, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Palestine, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Qatar, Kuwait, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Oman, reached $24.6 billion in the period, according to a report released by Anadolu Agency (AA) Sunday that compiled data from the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM).

This figure was $19.7 billion in the same period of last year.

In the nine-month period, Iraq took the lion’s share in Türkiye’s exports to the region with $7.5 billion. Iraq was followed by Israel with $5.1 billion, the UAE with $2.5 billion, Iran with $1.7 billion and Lebanon with $1.7 billion.

During this period, some $1.8 billion worth of sales were made to Qatar, $1.7 billion to Syria, $985.8 million to the TRNC, $776.1 million to Yemen, $647.2 million to Jordan, $489.4 million to Kuwait, $420.8 million to Saudi Arabia, $306.9 million to Oman, $142.4 million to Bahrain and $92.2 million to Palestine.

Exports to the Middle East and the Gulf region increased in 13 countries in the January-September period of this year compared to the same period of 2021, but decreased in two countries.

In this period, the highest increase in exports was to Saudi Arabia with 180%.

A rise of 91.4% was seen in exports to Lebanon while a rise of 58.7% was seen in exports to Qatar, 48.9% in TRNC exports, 33.1% in UAE exports and 30.3% in Palestine exports.

Exports to Bahrain increased by 21.8% while they saw a 19.3% rise to Israel, an 18.8% rise to Jordan, a 9.1% to Kuwait, a 7% to Iran and a 0.6% to Syria.

Exports to Yemen decreased by 2.9% as did exports to Oman by 7.3%.

When the distribution of exports to the Middle East and Gulf countries in the nine months of the year is analyzed by provinces, exports from Istanbul amounted to some 43.5% of overall sales to the region with $10.7 billion.

On a sectoral basis, the chemical substances and products sector made the largest exports to the region with $3.9 billion. After the chemicals and products industry, the highest export volume came from cereals, pulses, oilseeds and products with $3.2 billion.

These sectors were followed by steel with $2.8 billion, furniture, paper and forestry products with $1.8 billion, and electricity and electronics with $1.4 billion.