Southeast's 3-month grain exports reached 836.5 million dollars

Kadooğlu, President of the Southeastern Anatolia Cereals, Pulses, Oilseeds and Products Exporters' Association, announced that they increased exports by 10 percent in the first three months of the year, reaching 836.5 million dollars.

Celal Kadooğlu stated that pasta exports rank first among the basic food products in the region, followed by wheat flour, sunflower seed oil and sweet biscuits-wafers.

Stating that the export increase approached 35 percent in sweet biscuits and wafers and 45 percent in cocoa products, and that the increase rate in non-cocoa sugar and sugar products exports was approximately 120 percent, Kadooğlu said that Africa was the largest export destination in this period when goods sales decreased by 9.4 percent. He stated that there was a 15.4 percent increase in the Middle East.

Evaluating the effects of the restrictions imposed on the import of food products by Iraq, which has an important place in the export of the grain sector, on sectoral exports, Kadooğlu said:

"The grains, pulses, oilseeds and products sector, which was the export leader in the Southeastern Anatolia region in the first quarter, increased its exports by 10 percent to 836.5 million dollars. Our companies in Southeastern Anatolia sell an average of 100 million dollars of basic food products to Iraq per month. These data mean that more than half of the sector's total exports to Iraq were made from our region. Iraq's share in Turkey's total grain exports of 3.1 billion dollars in the first quarter was 583 million dollars, according to our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in April. "We believe that his planned visit to Turkey will make a great contribution to the development of commercial relations between the two countries."