Dairy Industry Increases Exports to China

Turkey's dairy products sector made a rapid entry into China after obtaining export certification in May 2020. Turkey demonstrated success in exporting over USD 7 million worth of dairy products to China over the 5-month period. China's annual dairy products imports exceeding USD 6 billion are spurring the appetite of the Turkish aquatic products sector. The sector is targeting USD 100 million in exports to China.

According to a written statement from Ege İhracatçı Birlikleri, Sinan Kızıltan, Chairman of the Turkey Aquatic Products and Animal Products Exporters Associations Sector Board, emphasized that Turkish milk producers are going through a serious bottleneck due to milk price levels, and noted that the issuance of export certification to China and the start of exports during this period will provide relief to the sector in the coming period.

Sharing information that 54 companies producing at world standards in the Turkish dairy products sector have obtained export permission to China, Kızıltan said, "Our companies that received export permission to China made contact with Chinese importers in the digital environment during the pandemic period. 17 of our companies demonstrated success in exporting 6,590 tons of dairy products over the past 5-month period. We believe that our other companies that have export permission will also begin exporting to China in the coming period. We expect our dairy product exports to China to reach USD 25-30 million by the end of 2020 and USD 100 million in the following years."

China rose to sixth place in five months

Chairman Kızıltan stated that the dairy products sector achieved USD 254 million in exports during the remaining period of 2020, noting that Iraq ranks first with USD 52.5 million in exports, and Saudi Arabia prefers USD 42 million worth of Turkish dairy products. Kızıltan added that we exported USD 16.8 million to the United Arab Emirates, USD 13.6 million to Kuwait, USD 12.1 million to Egypt, and that China has risen to sixth place among the countries to which we export the most in a short period of time.