Ankara plans wider support for online exporters

ISTANBUL

Türkish Trade Minister Ömer Bolat (AA Photo)

Turkish government plans to extend support for online exports to 35 countries from 26, Trade Minister Ömer Bolat said, with assistance covering marketplace promotion, order fulfillment and sales commissions.

Speaking at an e-commerce summit in Istanbul on Sept. 15, Bolat said 134 companies had received 638 million Turkish Liras in support this year.

Fifteen firms had also joined an online export consortium scheme.

Bolat said the value of e-commerce transactions rose 52.2 percent to more than 4.5 trillion liras in 2025. In dollar terms, it grew about 29 percent to $115 billion.

Retail e-commerce reached about 2.5 trillion liras, up 52 percent. E-commerce accounted for 19.3 percent of total trade last year.

The number of online transactions climbed to around 6 billion in 2025 from 1.36 billion in 2019. Retail transactions accounted for nearly 2 billion of last year’s total.

About 634,000 businesses were active in e-commerce at the end of 2025, mostly small and medium-sized enterprises. Three-quarters were sole proprietorships, Bolat said.

He said negotiations with the European Union had preserved preferential treatment for qualifying e-commerce shipments from Türkiye after new EU duties on low-value parcels took effect on July 1.

The arrangement depends on meeting customs documentation requirements.

Bolat also outlined efforts to protect competition and consumers in domestic retail markets.

“The aim is to prevent practices that distort competition and harm consumers and to establish a market with multiple players,” he said.

Regulation also seeks to stop sellers from imposing unfair terms on buyers and suppliers, he added.

Bolat said a draft law governing the fruit and vegetable trade had been completed and was under review by the ruling party’s parliamentary group, with input from public and private-sector representatives.

The government hopes to secure its passage in the next legislative session, with measures intended to curb price increases.

The draft would strengthen cooperatives and producer associations, increasing rent discounts for producer associations at wholesale markets and reserving more market space for them.

Bolat acknowledged that efforts to increase their share of the fruit and vegetable trade had made limited progress.

Consumer arbitration committees resolved about 2.77 million applications involving disputes worth 34 billion liras between June 2023 and August 2026, he said.

The ministry inspected about 322,000 companies and 39 million products in the first eight months of this year, imposing 2.24 billion liras in fines for unsafe goods, excessive pricing and other unfair practices.