Aegean Exporters' Association Increases Exports by 8.5% in January-March Period

Aegean Exporters Associations reached USD 1 billion 286 million in exports in March with an 18 percent increase. In the first quarter of 2021, during the January-March period, EİB earned USD 3 billion 515 million in foreign currency for Turkey with an 8.5 percent rise, and signed off on USD 13 billion 278 million in exports over the past 12 months. Aegean Exporters Associations Coordinator President Jak Eskinazi said that EİB reached 190 different export markets in the first quarter of 2021 and succeeded in increasing its exports to 105 countries and regions. "Our exports to the European Union reached USD 1 billion 681 million in volume with a 13 percent increase in the first three months of 2021. In the first quarter of 2021, our exports to 18 EU countries increased, while the EU's share in EİB's total exports was recorded at 48 percent, and Europe's share in our exports at 55 percent. According to Eurostat data, as of end of 2019, the top 10 countries where EU member states made the most direct investment include the United States with 24 percent, the United Kingdom with 21 percent, Switzerland with 11 percent, Canada and China with 4 percent. With this much potential and geographical advantage, Turkey should attract more direct investment from the EU. With the EU Green Deal, we are in a period where cooperation in all areas has gained greater importance in parallel with the green transformation of industry and the new competitive advantage to be created. In a new-generation stakeholder-based economy, just as we have done with the United Kingdom, it is now essential to make a paradigm shift in our relations with the EU."   Noting Asia's rising share in global industrial production, Jak Eskinazi provided information that EİB's exports in the first three months of 2021 to Cambodia, an ASEAN member among the 15 Asia-Pacific countries that signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement RCEP, showed a 370 percent increase, to Malaysia 51 percent, to Singapore 1.3 percent, to Thailand 34 percent and to Vietnam 101 percent increase, and to the Union's dialogue partners China showed a 1 percent increase, to Japan 3 percent, to South Korea 87 percent and to New Zealand 12 percent increase.  

Eskinazi stated: "In the first three months of 2021, we saw notable increases in our exports by country groups. We realized exports of USD 393 million to American countries with a 23 percent increase, USD 375 million to Middle Eastern countries. Our exports to other European countries reached USD 251 million with an 8 percent increase, to Asian and Oceanian countries USD 265 million with a 16 percent increase, to African countries USD 235 million, to former Eastern Bloc countries USD 191 million with a 20 percent increase, to Free Trade Zones USD 75 million with a 26 percent increase. Our exports to Turkic Republics remained at USD 46 million, maintaining the same level as the corresponding period of the previous year."

  Eskinazi announced that Germany maintained its first-place position in EİB's exports with USD 412 million with a 10 percent increase in the first quarter of 2021, stating: "The United States ranks second with USD 279 million with a 22 percent increase, and the United Kingdom ranks third among our trading partners with the most exports at USD 211 million with an 11 percent increase. We realized exports of USD 205 million to Italy with a 5 percent increase, USD 199 million to Spain with a 23 percent increase, USD 157 million to the Netherlands with a 1 percent increase, USD 166 million to France with a 23 percent increase, USD 95 million to Israel with a 9 percent increase, USD 90 million to Belgium with a 21 percent increase, USD 84 million to Russia with a 19 percent increase."   According to EİB data; Uganda 1,866 percent, Turks and Caicos Islands 462 percent, Argentina 441 percent, Sierra Leone 383 percent, Zimbabwe 336 percent, Maldives 337 percent, Honduras 377 percent, Cambodia 370 percent, Jamaica 189 percent, Pakistan 183 percent, Haiti 166 percent, Ireland 165 percent, Mayotte 153 percent, Bahamas 126 percent, Zambia 112 percent, Nicaragua 108 percent, Vietnam 100 percent, Georgia and Equatorial Guinea 97 percent, Bangladesh and Rwanda 92 percent are among the top 20 countries that experienced the highest export increases.