Turkey's cotton trade deficit reaches US$9bn in 2002-12

16 Jan '13

2 min read

Cotton imports of Turkey, a major exporter of textiles, is rising continuously and its trade deficit for cotton and allied products has surpassed US$ 9 billion in past one decade, Hurriyet Daily News reported citing a report by Umut Oran, Deputy Chairman of the Republican People’s Party (CHP).

According to the report, since 2002 Turkey imported US$ 21.7 billion worth of cotton, cotton fibre and cotton fabric and exported US$ 12.6 billion of the same.

The report notes that growing cotton in Turkey is more expensive as compared to other countries.

According to Turkish Statistical Institution data, the country’s cotton cultivation acreage has also reduced by 1.79 billion sq m over the last decade, which caused its contribution to global production to fall from 4.6 percent in 2002 to 2.1 percent last year.

Turkey is currently the second largest importer of cotton, next to China, according to the statistics of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The price of cotton imported by Turkey has gone up by almost 275 percent over past one decade. Against average procurement price of US$ 2.13 per kg, Turkey sold cotton for US$ 1.69 per kg during January-October 2012, which too laid an impact on its trade deficit.

Contributing around US$ 1.3 billion worth of cotton to the country’s US$ 1.8 billion worth of cotton imports, the US turned out to be the leading exporter of cotton to Turkey during 2011.

Brazil stood next, while Greece ranked third. The three countries retained the same positions even in 2012.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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