Representatives of Turkish food, textile, wood and car industries looking for partners in Serbia

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is coming to Serbia early next week, is to be accompanied during his visit by a delegation of Turkish representative of the food, textile, wood and car industries.

Representatives of Serbian capital from the same fields will have an opportunity to talk with their Turkish colleagues about potential partnerships at the business forum to be held at the Palace of Serbia in Belgrade.

In the past years, the economic cooperation between Serbia and Turkey, which have a Free Trade Agreement signed, has become stronger, as show by the fact that last year's trade of goods amounted to EUR 1.084 billion.

The Turkish parliament ratified the new free trade agreement between Serbia and Turkey this January, creating the conditions for a larger number of goods to be included in the customs-free regime of trade between the two countries.

The director of the Sector for International Economic Relations at the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia, Jelena Jovanovic, says that, in the period since 2010, the merchandise trade between the two countries has increased 4.5 times.

– Based on the data for the first seven months, the merchandise trade is expected to exceed EUR 1.2 billion this year – Jovanovic told Tanjug.

Serbian auto-industry exports to Turkey, primarily pumps, tires and various components, while Serbia also imports car components, but also textile and fruit.

Thanks to the new free trade agreement which the Turkish parliament ratified this January, Serbia has had customs-free annual export to Turkey approved for the first time.

Serbia is now authorized for the export of 5,000 tons of beef, 25,000 tons of raw sunflower oil, 10,000 tons of refined sunflower oil, 15,000 tons of sunflower seeds, 5,000 tons, 1,000 tons of animal feed products and 500 tons of certain baked products.

Quotas are doubled for beans, green beans, sweet corn and prunes.

Jelena Jovanovic says that there's considerable room for the cooperation of the two countries to improve, but also to increase the amount of investments from that country in Serbia.

In the period between 2010 and 2018, she says, Turkish investments in Serbia amounted to EUR 135.1 million.

Turks invested in the textile industry and the auto-industry the most, as well as in the mechanical sector and the food sector. On the other had, there's potential for expanding the cooperation in the wood industry, the mechanical industry and the IT sector.

The data show that there are 151 companies operating in Serbia with an over 50% Turkish capital.

Privredna komora Srbije

Jelena Jovanović

Recep Tayyip Erdogan

food industry

textile industry

wood industry

car industry

free trade agreement