Turkish packaging industry posts $366 million trade surplus in 2014

ISTANBUL-Anadolu Agency

Turkey’s packaging industry posted over $366 million trade surplus in 2014, keeping making a positive contribution to decreasing current account gap of the country, said head of Packaging Industrialists Association (ASD) and Petkim CEO Saadettin Korkut.

“Our sector continues to decrease the share of imported goods gradually and focus on making production with higher added value. In this vein, we achieved to slash the packaging imports by 3 percent last year from the previous year and posted over $366 million trade surplus,” he said at a press meeting on late April 7 to announce the 2014 results of the sector.

Korkut noted that the global packaging industry grows by 3 percent in annual average and is expected to reach around $820 billion in volume by 2016 with the largest players, the U.S. and China.

“As is the case across the world, the packaging materials’ consumption has been increasing in Turkey with the rise of middle-income population and the spread of urban life. The sector’s volume has now reached to around $19 billion,” he said.

The annual packaging consumption per capita is around $240 in Turkey, close to the European average at around $250-300, but lower than the North American average at around $350-400 and the Japanese at $550, he said.

“More innovative and more eco-friendly packages have now preferred by consumers around the globe, making the producers of such products more competitive. For instance, such products make possible for many countries to minimize the prodigality levels in food,” he said, adding that only 2-3 percent of foods go to waste in Europe, where the packaging industry is fairly innovative, but the same rate is around 50 percent in countries where the sector is underdeveloped.