Evaluation of the agricultural sector in the context of agriculture-foreign trade relationship: The case of Aydın province chesnut product

Turkey is one of the leading countries both in producing and exporting chestnut product in the world. Among the chestnut producer provinces of Turkey, Aydın province is the leader one. The aim of this study is to display the importance of chestnut product and its undiscovered export potential for the economies of both Aydın province and Turkey. The main data of the study have been obtained from the databases of the Food and Agriculture Organization, the Turkish Statistical Institute, Aydın Commodity Exchange, and Aegean Exporters' Associations. In the respect of the obtained data, the fixed-based index and varied-based index calculations, the Least Squares method, the Unit Root test and the Toda-Yamamoto Casuality test have been applied in order to examine the importance of chestnut product for the foreign trade and national income of Aydın and Turkey province.