Turkey's gold jewelry exports reached 1.1 billion USD in 2009.

Arab and U.S. consumers preferred the Turkish gold the most, as United Arab Emirates (UAE) imported gold jewelry amounting to 348.9 million USD, while USA purchased gold jewels worth 120 million USD from Turkey in 2009, a report from the Turkish Export Promotion Center (IGEME) said on Monday.

Germany, Iraq, Russia, Kazakhstan, Israel, Italy, Azerbaijan-Nahcevan and Libya were other countries that imported the highest amount of gold products from Turkey in 2009, IGEME's report said.

Turkey's jewelry exports amounted to 1.6 billion USD in 2008, putting the country at the 11th place in the world market list.

Turkey is currently one of the top 3 countries in the world gold jewelry market, together with Italy and India.

The country produces 250-300 tons of gold jewelry products annually.

The sector currently employs nearly 250,000 people, and it comprises of 6,000 producers and 35,000 jewelry shops.


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