KIEV: By the end of this year, Ukraine and Turkey are going to sign a Free Trade Agreement. Currently, both countries are conducting negotiations regarding the terms of this FTA, which were suspended in 2013.
During a meeting in Ankara, the Turkish President Erdogan and the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko announced an ambitious plan to increase trade turnover between the two countries to $ 20 billion by 2020 (in 2015, turnover from trade amounted to just 3.6 billion).
In the field of fruit, Turkey is perceived in Ukraine mostly as a supplier of citrus fruits. In this regard, it is worth noting that, this winter, imports from Turkey actually prevented a catastrophic rise in citrus prices. Even though the price of these imported fruits is sensitive to the dollar, they remained more or less stable, and all because of the spoiling relations between Turkey and Russia, which prevented the former from exporting its fruits and vegetables. This, accordingly, resulted in increased shipments to Ukraine, which kept prices at bay.
In global terms, however, Ukraine exports more goods to Turkey than Turkey does to Ukraine. According to the State Statistics Service, last year Ukraine exported to Turkey goods worth 2.77 billion dollars, which is more than 7% of total Ukrainian exports. Meanwhile, the country imported Turkish goods worth 0.85 billion dollars. Turkey, in fact, is one of the few countries where Ukraine exports much more than it imports.
