The export from Southeastern Anatolia to Syria in January increased by 34 percent compared to the previous year, reaching $67,574,000. Following the end of the 61-year Ba’ath regime in Syria and the fall of Assad, Turkish companies began the new year with rapid exports to this country. According to data compiled from the Southeastern Anatolia Exporters’ Associations (GAİB), while $50,458,000 worth of exports were made to Syria in January of last year, the first month of the new year witnessed $67,574,000 in external sales. With normalization in Syria, exports to this country increased by 34 percent in the first month of the new year compared to the same period in the previous year.

“SYRIA MARKET WILL SERVE AS A BRIDGE” The Coordinator President of the Southeastern Anatolia Exporters’ Associations (GAİB), Ahmet Fikret Kileci, stated that commercial relations with Syria should be developed not only based on short-term gains but through strategic and long-term projects. Kileci pointed out that the Syrian market could serve as a bridge, extending beyond this country to deeper points in the Middle East and even Africa. He said, “Syria emerged from a long war and is trying to rebuild itself. As Turkey, we have always supported this country and will continue to do so. There may have been some mistakes at the beginning, but we see that many errors have been corrected. Significant adjustments have been made, especially regarding high taxes on basic food products. We believe that with proper work and planning, our exports to Syria will grow exponentially as bilateral relations increase.”

Kileci expressed that initially, presenting everything to this market at once is not a correct strategy, and now exporters need to act with a rational and conscious trade approach focusing on opportunities. Celal Kadooğlu, President of the GAİB Cereal Pulses Oil Seeds and Products Exporters’ Union, highlighted that cereals and pulses are one of the sectors that will significantly increase exports to Syria. Kadooğlu mentioned that there is an annual export volume of $350 million in cereals and pulses to Syria, and he stated, “I believe that we are in a position to increase this figure to $500-600 million in the near future.”