Boycott intensifies … and Turkey’s exports to Saudi Arabia drop 93.7%

Data from the Turkish Exporters Association revealed today, Thursday, that Turkey’s exports to Saudi Arabia fell 93.7 percent in March to $ 18.9 million from $ 298.2 million. dollars a year ago, showing the impact of an unofficial boycott of Saudi Arabia that has been going on for months. .

In the first quarter of the year, Turkey’s exports to Saudi Arabia fell 93.1 percent to $ 56.2 million. But exporters and traders said some Turkish exporters were diverting food, clothing and other goods to circumvent the boycott.

Last December, official data showed that the value of Saudi Arabia’s imports from Turkey fell to an all-time high in December, and imports from Turkey amounted to 50.6 million riyals ( $ 13.49 million), compared to Riyal 182.2 million in November, a decrease of 72.2. And 1.06 billion riyals in December 2019, according to the Saudi General Authority of Statistics. And December’s value is the lowest for at least a year.

Last year, Saudi businessmen and retailers called for a ban on imports from Turkey as part of an unofficial boycott of Turkish products.

And private sector specialists said last October that Saudi Arabia’s industrial sector was able to provide alternatives to Turkish products.

They pointed out that Saudi Arabia has a major industrial value which covers the sectors of food, building materials, equipment and manufacturing of consumer goods and products, capable of enhancing local value and to cover any import deficit for all future conflicts resulting from a change in direction of economic policies.

According to specialists, it sends reassuring messages from the domestic market to the home consumer, especially after real experience during the coronavirus pandemic and how the government and the private sector were able to cope with the crisis and provide all the amenities, in especially the main ones, with stable prices in the market without a shortage of supply.

This strengthens market power in the face of the results of the recent popular campaign to boycott Turkish products in Saudi Arabia, which saw the interaction of various institutions and companies operating in different commercial and industrial sectors.