Turkey earns $70M from export of bottled water

By Busra Nur Ozcan

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey earned $70 million by exporting 450,000 tons of bottled water in 2017, said head of the Packaged Water Manufacturers Association (SUDER).

The country's bottled water exports were nearly 410,000 tons, which was worth $64 million, in 2016, Serdar Seyhanli told Anadolu Agency.

He said the bottled water market rose nearly 3 percent to reach 11.6 billion liters in 2017.

"The sector's turnover, which was 5.4 billion Turkish lira ($1.78 billion) in 2016, reached 5.7 billion Turkish liras ($1.56 billion) in 2017," he stressed.

He noted that bottled water consumption per capita was 149 liters in the last year.

Seyhanli, who is also country manager of Nestle Waters Turkey, said that his company exports their packaged water products to 20 countries including the U.K., Dubai, the Netherlands and the UAE.

The U.K. ranked first with the import of 108,824 tons of water, which was worth $12 million, last year, according to Uludag Exporters' Association (UIB) data.

Germany ranked second by importing 86,553 tons of water worth $14.6 million, and the UAE ranked third by importing 56,318 tons of water worth $9.8 million.

Turkey is a rich country in terms of its natural resources, and Turkish water was preferred especially in European and Gulf countries, according to the SUDER.

Turkey's exports were $157.5 billion during 2017, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute.

*Gokhan Ergocun contributed to this story from Ankara.