KYIV. Nov 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine and Turkey intend to increase goods turnover in the category of agricultural products in the coming years in view of the forthcoming agreement on a free trade area (FTA).
“I hope that our trade volumes will double in the near future,” Deputy Minister of Food, Agriculture and Livestock of Turkey Mehmet Danis said during the Ukrainian-Turkish agricultural business forum in Kyiv.
According to him, over the past 13 years agricultural production in Turkey was steadily growing. Now exports of agricultural products from the country stand at $17 billion, while imports of agricultural products at $11 billion. Turkey delivers 1,600 items of agricultural goods to 192 countries.
“Ukraine is the second country in terms of cooperation in agriculture… Negotiations on the FTA will finish and our trade relations will gain a new impetus,” the Turkish official said.
Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Agricultural Policy and Food for European Integration Olha Trofimtseva at the forum said trade turnover in agriculture between Ukraine and Turkey in 2015 was about $1 billion, over the ten months of 2016 some $700 million.
“Turkey ranks seventh among the importers of Ukrainian agricultural products and third among the countries exporting agricultural products to Ukraine following Germany and Poland,” she said.
