Turkey’s marble export over $1.4 bln in 2018

AFYONKARAHİSAR – Anadolu Agency

Turkey’s marble export surpassed $1.4 billion in the first 10 months of 2018, a local commerce office head said.

Turkey exported marble mostly to China, the U.S., Saudi Arabia, India and Iraq, Hüsnü Serteser, head of Afyonkarahisar Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told Anadolu Agency.

Afyonkarahisar in western Turkey hosts leading marble resources of the country.

“Turkey a prominent country in marble in terms of quality, color and varieties of stone,” he said.

Serteser also said that Turkey now produces marble processing machines.

“Previously, we use to import these machines from Italy, but now, we can produce them better than Italy,” he added.

Turkey has several types of marble, such as white marble from the Aegean province of Muğla and the dark-red marble known as “cherry marble” mined in eastern province of Elazığ.

Last year, exports of natural Turkish stone - including processed and uncut marble, granite, travertine, and slate - totaled 7.94 million tons or $2.05 billion, according to the Istanbul Mineral Exporters’ Association.

Turkey is also the world’s top marble exporter, followed by Italy and Greece.