Turkey earns over $2B from plastics exports

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey exported $2.08 billion worth of plastic products in the first six months of the year, marking a 1.8 percent increase compared to the same period last year, according to the Turkish Plastics Industry Foundation (PAGEV) on Thursday.

During the first half of 2017, the country exported 798,000 tons of plastic products to around 150 countries, a press release said. Total production was 4.7 million tons and worth $17.7 billion.

Plastic household and kitchen goods exports rose 30 percent to $197 million in the same period, while the country's foreign trade surplus in plastics production reached $612 million.

Turkey, which is the second largest plastics producer in Europe, and sixth in the world, has some 6,500 companies and employs around 250,000 people, according to the PAGEV.

If the same trend continues in the country, the production is expected to increase by 9.4 million tons and reach $35.5 billion at the end of 2017, PAGEV said.