Turkey’s gold imports, which totaled 67 kilograms for the first five months of the year, rose to 4.1 tons over the past three weeks. Summer is known as the season of weddings, for which gold coins are a traditional gift, and declining prices have also played a major role in that increase, according to sector representatives.

There are allegedly 5,000 tons of gold sequestered in people’s homes in Turkey. The gold price currently stands at $950 per ounce, a figure that has encouraged people to dig out the gold hidden underneath their mattresses. About 80 tons of gold were collected by jewelers

In the first five months of 2008, gold worth $1.5 billion was imported, said Oğuzhan Aloğlu, the vice president of the Istanbul Gold Exchange. This year, that figure declined to $1.95 million, he added. However, due to falling prices, as well as increasing exchange figures, the country’s imports began to climb over the past three weeks to stand at $125 million, Aloğlu said.