Turkish State Minister for foreign trade Zafer Caglayan said on Friday that Turkish exports to Egypt and Tunisia dropped significantly after the recent protests in those countries, Anadolu News Agency reported.
Caglayan said that exports to Tunisia dropped 38 percent while exports to Egypt decreased 23.7 percent between January 1 and February 24, 2011 when compared to the same period of 2010.
Turkey, which exported products worth of 40.5 million USD to Tunisia between February 1 and 24, 2010, made an exports of 35.5 million USD with a 12 percent decrease in the same period of 2011, said Caglayan. He noted that exports to this country was 103 million USD between January 1 and February 24, 2010, and it dropped 38 percent to 64 million USD in the same period of 2011.
Noting that Turkey's export to Egypt was 352 million USD between January 1 and February 24, 2010, Caglayan said that this figure dropped 23.7 percent to 268 million USD in the same period of 2011. He added that Turkey's export to this country dropped 65 percent from 172.5 million USD between February 1 and 24, 2010 to 59 million USD in the same period of 2011.
Commenting on the recent unrest in Libya, Caglayan said that as the incidents were fresh, export figures were not affected yet, however, the impact would be seen soon.
Caglayan said that Turkey's export to Libya, which was 275.5 million USD between January 1 and February 24, 2010, was 274.2 million USD in the same period of this year. He added that export to that country increased 2.21 percent from 123.6 million USD between February 1 and 24, 2010 to 126.6 million USD in the same period of 2011.