By News Center

The demand for Turkish tea is increasing. According to the compilation of data from the Eastern Black Sea Exporters Association (DK?B), tea grown in Turkiye was sold to 96 countries, autonomous and free zones in 3 months of the year.

Tea exports, which were recorded as $7,1m in January-March 2023, increased by 20 percent in the same period this year and reached $8.6m.

The export amount of Turkish tea, which was 1,465 tons in the first quarter of last year, reached 1,828 tons in the same period this year.

The highest demand for Turkish tea came from Belgium, the United Kingdom and the USA.

In the January-March period, 896 tons of tea worth $3.8m were exported to Belgium. Exports to this country increased by 35 percent in quantity and 44 percent in value compared to the same period in 2023, when $2.7m were earned for 666 tons.

Belgium was followed by the United Kingdom with 929,185 and the USA with $780,522.

Unlike the same period last year, Liberia, Mauritania, Croatia, Cameroon, Gabon, Poland, Tunisia, Egypt, South Sudan, Dubai, Burundi, Brazil, Central African Republic, Venezuela, Equatorial Guinea, Cuba, Djibouti, Angola and Gambia. Tea was sold during this period.

DK?B Chairman of the Board of Directors Saffet Kalyoncu said that they will continue their effective promotional activities to ensure that Turkish tea exports reach higher figures.

Referring to the target markets, Kalyoncu said, "In the first stage, we will focus on the markets of Europe, Turkish Republics, Middle Eastern countries and the Russian Federation and try to increase our share in these markets to higher figures."

Kalyoncu concluded his words as follows:

"It is now necessary to abandon the traditional production method, renew the production facilities on the scale of today's modern technological possibilities, and ensure the transformation of being able to produce products suitable for the consumption preferences of each country. For this, the majority of the ministries of Agriculture and Forestry and Industry and Technology are in SME status and whose capital adequacy is at the highest level. "It is important to provide support to tea manufacturing companies."