Turkey's garment exports to Saudi Arabia jump threefold in 2022

Turkiye's garment exports to Saudi Arabia rebounded sharply following a period of strained diplomatic and trade relations after the 2018 assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Bilateral trade, including garment exports, had been impacted by tensions between the two nations. However, both countries have taken steps to normalise their relations, resulting in a three-fold increase in garment exports in 2022.

Garment exports from Turkiye to Saudi Arabia declined to $172.870 million in 2020, compared to the $268.612 million shipment value in 2019. The trade was also severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The shipment further decreased to less than 10 per cent in 2021 due to trade restrictions, crashing to just $14.415 million from $172.870 million in 2020, according to Fibre2Fashion's market insight tool TexPro.

However, efforts by both nations to normalise their relations have had a positive impact on trade. Leaders' visits also played an important role in the normalisation of relations. Turkiye's garment exports to Saudi Arabia surged 342 per cent to $62.730 million in 2022, as per TexPro. Reports suggest that the recovery in trade continued into the first two months of the current year.

Garment exports remained negligible until mid-2022, with a shipment value of only $5.038 million in Q2 2022. However, it increased significantly to $23.231 million in Q3 and $30.231 million in Q4 of 2022.