Turkey

Viticulture has a vital position within Turkey’s agricultural structure, making significant contributions to the economy. The area under cultivation is 465,000 ha. Although vineyards are spread over the country, production is mainly concentrated in the Aegean, Mediterranean, and Central Anatolian regions.

Turkey has traditionally specialized in producing table grapes and raisins,but it also has 34 kinds of wine grapes, 22 of which are valuable native varieties. Most Turkish wines are made from native wine grape varieties. Turkish wine producers also use the native grapes in combination with European varieties to create high quality new wines with a new taste for the world wine market.

The producers in the sector continually increase their wine production capacity and invest in modern technologies. Besides the large wine producing companies, there are also almost 300 small producers located in Central Anatolia, Marmara-Thrace and the Aegean region. Total wine capacity of the sector is about 120 million litres.

Wine exports are highly concentrated in three markets which are Belgium, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and Germany. Belgium is the most important market receiving almost 24% of the wine exports, followed by Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus with 20% and Germany with 10%.