India's exports to Turkey may get impacted in short run due to earthquake

India's merchandise exports of commodities such as cotton, manmade yarn and textile dyes may be impacted in the short run to earthquake-hit Turkiye, according to exporters.

Two powerful earthquakes hours apart on Monday last week caused widespread destruction of property and killed more than 28,000 people, leaving millions homeless in Turkiye.

The earthquakes also caused damage to the infrastructure and logistics network with the Port of Iskenderun remaining closed for around a week.

Exports to Turkiye increased to USD 6.2 billion during April-November 2022 against USD 5.1 billion in the corresponding period in 2021.

Federation of Indian Export Organisations (Fieo) Director General Ajay Sahai said that the extent of the damage in Turkiye is yet not known and thus its impact on exports is difficult to ascertain.

However, the earthquake will further depreciate Turkish Lira , which has significantly depreciated recently, and has touched its record low following the earthquake making imports costlier and impacting the demand, he said.

"Since the textile manufacturing centres of Gaziantep and Kahramanmaras provinces are worst-affected, our exports of cotton and manmade yarn and textile dyes may be impacted in short run," Sahai said.

Gaziantep is a province in south-central Turkiye. It is a major manufacturing hub of that country.

Sharing similar views, Hand Tools Association President S C Ralhan said that India's exports to Turkiye are increasing.

"Trade may get impacted in the short-term only due to the earthquake there, but not in the long run. There was no news so far from the MSME segment exporters of any issue while exporting to Turkiye so far," Ralhan said.

In 2021-22, India's exports to Turkey stood at about USD 9 billion, while imports aggregated at USD 2 billion in the same fiscal.

The major Indian exports to Turkiye include mineral oils and fuels, man-made filaments and staple fibres, automotive spare parts and accessories, organic chemicals.

Turkiye's exports to India include broken/unbroken poppy seeds; machinery and mechanical appliances, iron and steel articles thereof, inorganic chemicals, pearls and precious/semi-precious stones and metals (including imitation jewellery), and marble.

The Indian community in Turkiye is small, mostly working in business establishments and universities in Istanbul and Ankara.

A small number of professionals also work on certain projects there.

State Bank of India has a representative office in Istanbul. Turkish Airlines (in a code sharing arrangement with Air India) operates daily flights from Istanbul to Mumbai and Delhi.