Turkey’s OIC trade reaches $108 bn in first nine months

Turkey’s trade with Organisation of Islamic Cooperation countries reached $108 billion in the first nine months of 2026, Trade Minister Omer Bolat said on Sunday in an Anadolu Agency report.

The figure was 8.2% higher than the same period of 2025, while Turkey’s exports to OIC members reached $55 billion, Bolat said at the B57+ Business Leaders Summit in Istanbul.

Bolat said Turkey aims to lift OIC countries’ share of its total trade to 30% by 2028 from 27%. He framed the goal as part of Ankara’s effort to build more balanced, diversified and sustainable trade relations with the bloc.

The comments came during the second B57+ Business Leaders Summit, held alongside the 42nd meeting of COMCEC, the OIC’s Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation. The Istanbul event brought together ministers, policymakers, national institutions, chambers of commerce, investors, multinational companies and business representatives, according to Anadolu.

Bolat described a global economy under strain from politics, security risks and trade barriers. “Geopolitical tensions, wars, climate change, food and energy security challenges, disruptions in supply chains and logistics lines, difficulties in access to finance, fragilities in the global supply chain and rising trade protectionism, all of these directly affect the Islamic world,” he said, according to Anadolu.

The OIC has 57 member states. Citing the 2026 Economic Outlook Report of SESRIC, the Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries, Bolat said OIC members have a combined population of more than 2 billion, economic output approaching $10 trillion and total trade of about $5 trillion.

Bolat also cited data from the Islamic Centre for Development of Trade showing that trade among OIC members reached about $979 billion last year. He said intra-OIC trade accounted for about 20% of member countries’ roughly $5 trillion in total foreign trade.

For Turkey, the minister said trade with OIC countries has climbed from $87.5 billion in 2013 to almost $120 billion last year. The nine-month 2026 figure suggests the bloc remains a large part of Ankara’s trade diplomacy, though Anadolu did not provide a country-by-country breakdown or sectoral composition of the $108 billion total.

Bolat said Turkey supports deeper regional integration through mechanisms including the OIC preferential trade system. He said widening that system would increase trade, create investment opportunities and strengthen regional production networks among member states.

Investment flows were more mixed. Bolat said foreign direct investment into OIC countries rose from $148 billion in 2021 to $220 billion last year, but increased only about 0.6% from 2024. He said OIC countries accounted for 13.5% of global foreign direct investment last year.

Bolat said Turkish central bank data showed OIC member states invested $1.622 billion directly in Turkey last year and about $600 million in the first eight months of 2026. He said talks began last year to modernise a 1981 OIC investment promotion and protection agreement.

Bolat said COMCEC meetings are due to begin in Turkey on Monday. He said he plans bilateral meetings with ministers from OIC member countries on trade volumes, investment relations and ways to deepen economic ties.

Source: news agency report, Anadolu Agency, Nov. 1, 2026