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Turkish businessmen have started to feel the impact of Russian economic crisis especially in the field of tourism, suitcase trade and exports, Turkish industry chambers and tourism professional said here on Saturday.
"Exporters are on the brink of bankruptcy," said Turks in the statement while Russian currency rubble has lost more than 50 percent of value causing the purchasing power of Russians to drop down sharply.
The representatives of the Turkey's Association of Exporters of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables demanded the government to take urgent preventive measures in compensating the losses of Turkish exporters.
The member of the association and also the head of Uludag Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Exporters Union Salih Caki told Xinhua that the hopes of Turkish exporters in generating income out of the export to Russia has been fading away.
"European Union embargo to Russia in the sales of fresh fruits and vegetables obliged Russia to turn its face to Turkey in supplying its demand. This has caused big expectations among both Turkish exporters and producers," he explained.
This expectation gave way for the producers to increase the price of their products higher than it has to be in the domestic market.
Turkish exporters who had to buy the products from high prices obliged to realize their sales with significant losses in Russian market.
The representatives of the association also noted that due to the EU embargo to Russia, the European countries have been selling their products within the EU zone. "This also has sabotaged Turkey' s trade in the EU market," he added.
The export of Turkey to Russia has been regressed to 5.5 billion dollars between January and November 2014. The figure during the same period in 2013 was 6.5 billion dollars.
Another sector that has been experiencing big losses in their business with Russia is shuttle trade also known as suitcase trade. The suitcase trade is primarily centered in Istanbul's district of Laleli.
During 2014 the companies which have been selling products to Russia witnessed 50 percent of business loss, the member of board of the chamber of Istanbul Industry Ali UlviOrhan said referring to the suitcase trade.
"If the crisis remains one more season I am afraid a considerable part of these companies would be closed soon," he added.
The number of Russian buyers have fallen 20 percent in one year. Turkey during the third quarter of the year Russians has realized more than 2.5 million dollars suitcase trade from Turkey.
Orhan said that the companies in these districts have been paying high rents and without their sales to Russians it would be difficult for them to survive one more year. He highlighted that currently all the trade transactions have been stopped in Laleli.
Turkish tourism has also been affected by the collapse of Russian national currency. In 2013 more than 4 million Russian tourists arrived in Turkey. One of the main tourist attractive locations of the country is Antalya.
According to Turkey's Tourism and Hoteliers Federation, more than 12 million tourists in 2013 visited Antalya alone.
Turkish tourism operators has already declared that they have monitored a 40 percent of decline in Russian early foreign reservations so far.
Head of Antalya Chamber of Trade and deputy head of Turkish Union of Chambers and Exchange Commodities Cetin Osman Budak said that if the conditions of Russian economy remain the same in 2015, Turkey may lost 1 million Russian tourists.
He said the number of Russian tourists in Antalya in December alone has decreased 30 percent.
