Turkey has been the largest apricot producing and exporting country in the world for decades (FAO, 2002). According to the annual average of the 1999-2001 crop years, Turkey's annual apricot production accounted for 20.6% of world production.  Apricot production, numbers of fruit-bearing trees and non-fruit bearing trees in Turkey increased 4.2-2.4-and 2.2-fold between the 1979-1981 and 1999-2001 periods.

Malatya province in Eastern Anatolia supplies the largest portion of apricot production , particularly dried apricots, which accounted for 58% of Turkey's annual production during 1999-2001.

According to FAO trade statistics, Turkey's share of the world's dried apricot exports in terms of volume was 77.8% annually in 1999-2001. Turkey's dried apricot exports quantity progressively increased 10.7-fold during the last 2 decades, and reached 76,900 thousand in 1999-2001.

However, export revenues obtained from dried apricots did not increase at the same magnitude over the last 2 decades. Indeed, they only increased 5.1-fold between the two periods and reached $109 million.

According to FAO trade statistics, in terms of volume, the USA is the largest dried apricot importing country with a (15.9) (%) global market share, followed by England (8.6) (%), France (6.2) (%), Australia (5.0) (%), Holland (2.7) (%), Canada (2.4) (%), Japan (1.3) (%), Italy (1.2) (%) and Israel (1.1) (%).

Turkey's dried apricot export price can be assumed to equal the world price due to its higher share in world trade. This, in turn, implies that fluctuations in world dried apricot prices mainly depend on Turkey's export quantity. Exchange rates may be another source of dried apricot export price fluctuations in Turkey.