Trade with Turkey expanding

Over the past five years, the value of Dutch exports of goods to Turkey has risen by 24 percent to 4.7 billion euros in 2012. Dutch investments in Turkey in fact outstripped the value of exports to Turkey in 2012. Dutch tourist spending in Turkey also increased. Yet, economic relations between the Netherlands and Turkey remain fairly limited.

Goods trade firmly up

Last year, the Netherlands exported goods to Turkey worth nearly 4.7 billion euros, i.e. an increase by nearly 1 billion euros relative to 2007. Machinery, (artificial) fertilizer and computers are the main export products. Clothes, vegetables and fruit, petroleum (derivatives) and vehicles are the main import products from Turkey. The total value of Dutch imports from Turkey amounted to 2 billion euros.

Imports and exports of goods from and to Turkey account for approximately 1 percent of total Dutch trade and this share has been stable for years.

International goods trade with Turkey

Investments and turnover exceed total exports

Dutch investments in Turkey totalled up to nearly 6 billion euros in 2012. For the first time, investments exceeded the exports of goods and services to Turkey. Still, the share in total foreign investments is less than 1 percent. The sectors financial services and manufacturing industry were the most prominent investors in Turkey. Turnover generated by Dutch companies in Turkey totalled about 6.8 billion euros in 2011, i.e. 1.2 percent of total turnover earned by Dutch companies in countries outside the EU 27 in that year.

Altogether, Turkey invested approximately 1.5 billion euros in the Netherlands in 2012, i.e. 0.3 percent of total foreign investments in the Netherlands. With 136 million euros, turnover realised by Turkish companies active in the Netherlands was relatively modest in 2011.

Direct investments and turnover, 2011 and 2012*

Tourist spending 36 percent up in half a decade

In 2012, the value of imports of services from Turkey amounted to 735 million euros. Dutch tourist spending in Turkey accounted for nearly 60 percent of imports of services, e.g. holiday spending, like travel and accommodation expenses, which have grown by 36 percent relative to 2007. Exports of services to Turkey have risen by 31 percent over the past half decade.

International trade in services with Turkey

Marjolijn Jaarsma