Turkey's exports began the new year with a double record. Turkish exporters, who achieved the highest January exports in history, also broke a record in January merchandise exports. Trade Minister Ömer Bolat said regarding the January foreign trade data, "We started 2025 with a double record in exports. Our January exports increased by 5.8% to 21.2 billion dollars." Minister Bolat said, "Another record we broke was in our annualized merchandise exports. As of January 2025, our annualized merchandise exports in the last 12 months have increased to 263 billion dollars."
January foreign trade data was announced in Trabzon with the participation of Trade Minister Ömer Bolat, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloğlu, and Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM) President Mustafa Gültepe.
Number of Exporters Increased
Providing information about last year's foreign trade data, Bolat stated that Turkey managed to increase its share of world total exports in merchandise exports to 1.08% and its share in services exports to 1.35%, adding, "When we look at merchandise exports, 31 of our provinces exported over 1 billion dollars, and we increased exports in 55 of our provinces. There was a large increase in the number of exporting companies; we increased it to 180,544. We exported 12,806 products to more than 220 countries/regions. In 2024, the share of medium-high and high-tech products in our exports increased to 41.1%. The total value of our e-exports reached 6.4 billion dollars."
Foreign Trade Deficit Decreased
Ömer Bolat noted that monthly export records were broken in 13 of the last 20 months, while the import figure, which occurred at 30 billion dollars and above per month, was kept below 30 billion dollars. Bolat also said that the foreign trade deficit decreased in 13 of the last 20 months.
Stating that exports to the EU increased by 6.9% and amounted to 8.9 billion dollars this January, Bolat said, "I would like to emphasize the importance of the fact that our country's exports to this market are increasing in an environment where the EU's imports from the world decreased by 4.2% in the last 11 months." Bolat reported that the most exports in January were made to Germany, the USA, the United Kingdom, the UAE, and Iraq, respectively.
'We Will Protect Our Interests'
Noting that it is understood that the government that took office after the US elections will use tariffs strongly, Bolat noted the following:
"Indeed, an additional tariff regulation has been put into effect for Canada and Mexico at 25% and for China at 10%. In the face of these and similar retaliatory measures, we, as a country, will continue our efforts to protect our country's interests. A development in favor of the dollar is observed in the Euro-dollar parity. Considering that more than 50% of Turkey's exports are made to the European region, the parity, which was an average of 1.09 last January, has decreased to 1.04 this January. This brought a loss of approximately 484 million dollars in dollar terms."
Cargo Volume Increased in Ports
Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloğlu reported that the amount of cargo handled in ports last year increased by 2% compared to the previous year and reached 531 million 737 thousand 358 tons. In his written statement, Uraloğlu stated that in 2024, the most cargo handling was carried out in Aliağa with 86.3 million tons of cargo, on a regional port authority basis.