Agriculture

Turkey is one of the world’s few self-sufficient countries in terms of agricultural production in general and food stuffs in particular. Almost 15% of Turkey’s land consists of meadows and pastures; 29.5% is forest; and 35.5% arable lands. Wheat is Turkey’s leading crop and in 2002 Turkey was the world’s biggest producer of hazelnuts, figs and apricots and 4th biggest producer of fresh vegetables, grapes and tobacco. Approximately 30% of the population is employed in the agricultural sector.

Turkey is the world’s sixth largest cotton producer and almost 85% of its textile and ready-to-wear exports are made of cotton. It is no surprise then that almost every T-shirt you buy in the UK bears the legend ‘made in Turkey’. Turkey is the world’s fourth largest ready-to-wear clothing exporter and exports of the textile sector made up 34% of total industrial exports amounting to $15 billion in 2003.