Turkey exported $57.3 million in gold jewelry to Germany, its third-largest market, in 2009, data from the Export Promotion Center (İGEME) released Monday showed. According to the data, Turkey’s total gold jewelry exports amounted to $1.1 billion last year. The figures showed a $500 million decline compared to 2008, which the center attributed to a global credit crunch. Turkey’s gold jewelry exports jumped from $384.2 million in 2000 to a robust $1.6 billion in 2008.
The list of countries with the highest gold jewelry imports from Turkey also included Iraq with $43.2 million and Russia with $39.9 million. Kazakhstan, Israel, Italy, Azerbaijan and Libya rounded out the top 10 countries importing gold jewelry from Turkey in 2009.
Turkey has expanded its presence in the global gold jewelry market in the past 10 years. The country is currently among the top three gold jewelry producers, along with Italy and India, and it was the world’s 11th largest gold jewelry exporter in 2008. Some 70 percent of Turkish gold jewelry is exported, while the remaining 30 percent goes to domestic customers. The annual gold jewelry production in Turkey is around 300 tons. The gold jewelry sector in Turkey provides jobs for 250,000 people. Ankara and İzmir have the biggest share in Turkey’s gold jewelry production.
