Turkey's poultry exports reached $66 million in the January to June period of 2009, more than a 100 per cent increase over the same period of 2008, Poultry Meat Producers and Breeders Association (BESD-BIR) figures released last week.

Today's Zaman reports that while exports of chicken rose 190 per cent in the given period, exports of turkey jumped an impressive 212 per cent over the same half of 2008. Turkey's exports of chicken feet, mainly to Far Eastern countries, contracted to $10 million, suffering a 22 per cent decline in the first six months of 2009 over the same half of the preceding year.

Turkey's poultry exports reached only $28 million in 2006, after which the sector started to enjoy high profits in exports. In 2007, this figure approached $44 million, and it jumped to $87 million in the following year. The promising sector seems to be maintaining this success this year as well, already signaling a new record in exports by year's end.

The record increase in poultry exports was primarily due to heightened demand from countries such as Iraq. Until recently, importing most of their poultry from Brazil, Iraqi customers turned to Turkey when demand for fresh poultry increased in the country. Iraq currently prefers buying fresh poultry products from Turkey to frozen goods from Brazil, proximity being an important factor to this end. Turkey's poultry exports to Iraq enjoyed a 116 per cent increase in the first half of this year compared to same period of 2008. Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Vietnam and Bosnia and Herzegovina are the four largest consumers of Turkish poultry, followed by Singapore and Kuwait.