Turkey earns $1.6B in hazelnut exports in 10 months

By Jeyhun Aliyev

ANKARA

Turkey sold over 255,000 tons of hazelnuts abroad in the first 10 months of the export season, reaping $1.6 billion, an industry group on Tuesday.

The export volume between September 2017 and June 2018 saw a 25.3 percent jump in the same period from a year earlier, the Black Sea Hazelnut and Products Exporters' Union said.

Despite the growing sales volume, the value of exports dropped by around 3.5 percent over the same period of the previous season, according to union data.

Nearly 75 percent of Turkey's hazelnut exports in this period were made to EU countries, totaling $1.2 billion.

The country exported nearly 236,000 tons of hazelnuts and earned $1.88 billion during the entire 2016-2017 export season -- September to August.

Turkey is the world's largest exporter of hazelnuts.