Assessment of global competitiveness of non-wood forest products: The case of Turkey

Abstract

Non-wood forest products (NWFPs) contribute economically to all countries of the world and they are an important source of income, especially for people living in or near the forest. They are also used in many sectors such as medicine, chemistry and paint industry. In this respect, the importance of NWFPs is increasing day by day. In this research, the comparative advantage of NWFPs of Turkey was analyzed. In the analysis of research, it was used the revealed comparative advantage, relative trade advantage, and revealed competitiveness. The research is based on secondary data pertaining to the period 2008–2019. Moreover, in order to determine periodic trends, the determined period was evaluated in two sections covering the periods of 2008–2013 and 2014–2019. It has been found that Turkey had a strong competitiveness in NWFPs between years 2008 and 2019. When NWFPs were examined at subgroup level, Turkey has a comparative advantage in the subgroups 8. Furthermore, it was revealed that the competitive advantage of the period 2008–2013 is higher than of the period 2014–2019.