ANKARA: Turkiye purchased wheat from 30 countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Argentina, Brazil, Latvia, and Bulgaria totaling 8.9 million tons in 2022, however it replaced some suppliers last year.
In 2023, some countries stopped supplying to Turkiye, including Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Georgia, Argentina, Brazil, Iran, Israel, and Latvia, from which Turkish businesses purchased 222 thousand tons of wheat. At the same time, Lebanon and Mexico reduced their supplies to almost zero.
On the other side, Turkiye increased its purchases from Russia by 1.4 times, to 9 million tons for 2.7 billion dollars, and from Ukraine by 21 percent, to 2.5 million tons. Also, supplies from Kazakhstan went up by 2.3 times to 140 thousand tons, Syria by 1.6 times to 45 thousand tons, and Moldova by 1.8 times to 120 thousand tons. Bosnia and Herzegovina also started supplying wheat to Ankara, but only 3.4 thousand tons.
Turkiye’s wheat imports increase
In 2023, Turkiye bought almost 12 million tons of wheat from other nations, increasing its imports by one third compared to the previous year. In monetary terms, its wheat purchases amounted to 3.5 billion dollars, which is 5.4 percent more than a year earlier.
At the same time, Turkish exports of this grain went up by 4.6 times last year to 1.9 million tons, and in monetary terms – by 4.3 times, to 747 million dollars.
