Trade

Turkish exporters cashing in on end of Syrian conflict

January 9, 2025, 7:58 AM

A food stall in the Old City of Damascus. Foodstuffs comprised the largest component of Turkey’s December export figures

December exports up 21%
Cement and food top list
$1.5bn annual exports

The end of the civil war in Syria is already paying dividends for Turkish exporters.

Shipments have increased in the first weeks after the overthrow of the Assad regime, with a further ramping up forecast as stability is established.

Turkey’s exports to Syria increased by just under 20 percent year-on-year in December, with more than $150 million in trade crossing the border, according to data released on January 7 by the Türkiye Exporters Assembly (TİM).

Month on month, the increase was even more marked with December exports up 21 percent, accelerating year-end export volume to $1.5 billion, the TİM report said.

Not surprisingly for a war-ravaged country, the largest component in the December export figure was foodstuffs, dominated by grain, legumes and oil seed, which accounted for $60 million of the total, a jump of 73 percent on the same month in 2023.

Another product category that spiked was cement and related building materials, which rose 61 percent year-on-year to $8.6 million; while textiles and raw materials exports reached $6.1 million, a 74 percent increase.

While there was cause for the Turkish business community to be optimistic due to the shift in power in Syria, it will take time for the economic environment to settle, TİM president Mustafa Gültepe said in a statement provided to AGBI.

“There has to be caution as well as expectations since establishing stability is key for business in Syria and this might take years,” he said.

Though there may be potholes in the road to stronger trade links, Turkey’s government is keen to fill at least some of them, seeking to facilitate the flow of exports both through improving access and smoothing the administrative transfer of goods and services.

Ankara is to step up spending in restoring long-closed border crossing points with Syria and expanding the capacity of those still in operation to improve export shipments, trade minister Ömer Bolat said while visiting the border region on January 5.

It is not just infrastructure Turkey is looking to restore, with the minister also saying administrative barriers were set to be lowered as well.

“In this new era, we are completing our preparations for both a free trade agreement (FTA) and customs regimes by working with Syrian authorities,” Bolat told a meeting of TİM executives on January 4. “We will try to maximise our trade and investment relations to have a strong Syria.”

The original Ankara-Damascus FTA came into force in 2007, abolishing all tariffs and setting a timetable to eliminate all customs duties on bilateral trade by 2019. However, this deadline was never met, with Turkey suspending the agreement in December 2011 as the Syrian civil war escalated.