Saudis boycotting Turkish products – and Turkey is hurting

From pickled vine leaves to coffee and cheese, Saudi supermarkets are taking Turkish products off the shelves after calls for a boycott, as rivalry between Riyadh and Ankara heats up.

This week, after an earlier call from the head of the Saudi chamber of commerce to “boycott everything Turkish”, multiple supermarket chains announced they were stopping the import and sale of Turkish products.

“This decision has come in solidarity with the popular boycott campaign,” one of them, Abdullah Al Othaim Markets, said on Twitter.

The two countries are at loggerheads over a range of regional issues, from Libya and Syria to Qatar, a key Turkish ally that faces a three-year Saudi-led economic blockade.

Wary of rattling foreign investors and amid suspicion that Turkey could lodge a complaint with the World Trade Organization, the Saudi government has sought to distance itself from the boycott.

Authorities have denied placing restrictions on Turkish products and maintain that citizens have led the campaign.

But a joint statement from eight leading Turkish business groups this month claimed that many Saudi companies had been “forced to sign a letter of commitment not to import goods from Turkey”.

The Ankara-based Turkish Contractors Association meanwhile cited “various obstacles” at ongoing Saudi projects, such as not being invited to tenders, difficulty in obtaining visas for Turkish personnel and payment delays.

“It is estimated that the negative perception of Turkey resulted in business (losses) worth $3 billion in the Middle East for our contractors last year,” the association said.

So while BDS – which counts Turkey as a major supporter – grabs the headlines, in reality Saudi Arabia is doing far more damage to the Turkish economy than BDS has done in 15 years to Israel!

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