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Ahmet Öksüz, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Istanbul Textile and Raw Materials Exporters’ Association (İTHİB), stated that the production of the textile sector has reached a size of 49 billion dollars, and when the ready-made clothing sector is added to this, the total size reaches the level of 78 billion dollars in Turkey, said “During the pandemic process, our manufacturers made huge investments in the yarn and fabric sector. The ready-made clothing sector is strong with the textile sector, and the textile sector is strong with ready-made clothing sector. It is necessary that we must not disrupt this integrated production chain.”
The umbrella organization of the Turkish textile sector, Istanbul Textile and Raw Materials Exporters’ Association (İTHİB), came together in Kahramanmaraş. In the organization, held with the participation of Ahmet Öksüz, İTHİB Chairman of the Board, and the members of the board of directors, the present and future of the sector were evaluated. Ahmet Öksüz, Chairman of the Board of İTHİB, expressing that textile production in Turkey is among the important countries in the world with its modern infrastructure and integrated production power, pointed out that the textile sector has a strong production and export network in all sub-product groups.
Production reached $78 billion
İTHİB Chairman Öksüz, expressing that the sector is differentiated by its strong production structure, continued his words as follows “In 2021, the production of the textile sector reached 49 billion dollars. It is necessary to look at the last years in order for this figure to be understood more clearly. The production value of the textile sector was $38.6 billion in 2017, $38.2 billion in 2018, and $38.1 billion in 2019. In 2020, when the effects of the pandemic were felt most strongly, this data decreased to 36 billion dollars. In 2021, the production rose to 49 billion dollars with Turkey’s positive separation from rival countries. During these years, the production of the ready-made clothing sector also showed an increase. The ready-made clothing sector realized production of $29 billion in 2021. Thus, the production value of the textile and ready-made clothing sectors increased to 78 billion dollars in 2021. While the textile sector, with a production value of 49 billion dollars, constituted 8.5 percent of the production of manufacturing industry, the share that the textile and ready-made clothing sectors took from industrial production was 13.5%. The textile and ready-made clothing sectors also constituted 25.8 percent of the manufacturing industry employment.”
Investing producer should be protected against import
Öksüz, emphasizing that the sector, which has such a strong production structure, is faced with unfair competition against imported products, said “The increase in exports and bringing foreign currency to our country is our national responsibility. However, our sector is faced with unfair competition regarding imported products. During the pandemic process, our manufacturers made huge investments in the yarn and fabric sector. While the production capacity increased thanks to these investments, it also provided great benefits in terms of increasing exports. While Turkish manufacturers are making such big investments, that the damping products enter into our country very intensely and the additional customs duties applied to imported products remain low left our manufacturers in a difficult situation. This situation caused the companies, making domestic production to face unfair competition. The domestic manufacturer tried to continue production with cost pressure. Meanwhile, a record increase in imports has been experienced. There are various reasons for the record increase in imports. That Asian countries make dumping export is at the top of these. At the same time, the measures protecting the domestic producer are neutralized due to origin variance. If urgent measures are not taken in the face of these problems, it will be inevitable that the production reached a giant budget of 78 billion dollars decreases. The yarn sector is protected by Additional Customs Taxes between 5 and 8%. Unfortunately, the product group that is least protected among all products that additional Customs Tax is applied, is the cotton yarn sector. The average of the Additional Customs Tax is around 25% in all sectors. That the additional customs duty of the cotton yarn sector, which is one of the most important raw materials of the textile sector, is increased is among our most important expectations in this context. The stronger Turkish industrialists have the production infrastructure, the more they are supported the stronger the country will be. Our Ministry of Commerce also approaches the issue very meticulously. In this context, our Ministry of Commerce frequently comes together with our sector, and we are seeking solutions together against increasing unfair competition.
Exports of 2022 continue without slowing down
Öksüz, pointing out that the sector still managed to increase exports with its strong production infrastructure, also evaluated the export data. Öksüz used the following statements: “As the textile sector, we did not focus on a single market. Thanks to our export structure, we have an advantageous position both in the European Union Countries and throughout the world. In 2021, we exported to 200 countries and regions, and as the textile sector, we broke the historical record of the Republic with an export of 12.9 billion dollars. Despite the inflation crisis and war experienced in the world, textile reached the highest seasonal export figure of all time in the January-August period. It realized an export of 8.7 billion dollars by increasing 7.5 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. The countries to which we realized the highest textile exports in the first 8 months of the year respectively were Italy with an increase of 18.2 percent, Germany with an increase of 1.5 percent and the USA with an increase of 12.9 percent. Thanks to both our strong infrastructure and market diversity, we were aiming to strengthen our strong export growth in 2021 by making export worth 15 billion dollars in 2022. However, the euro/dollar parity, which fell below its 2002 level, saw its lowest level in the last 20 years. It seems highly probable that this parity will make an additional burden on our textile sector, which imports in dollars and exports in Euros. As the textile sector, we are making 52% of our exports on a euro basis. However, since the depreciation of the Euro will increase the production costs of the EU, the recession that may occur in Europe has the potential to increase the fragility for export of our textile sector. In this context, we revised our export targets for 2022 slightly downwards. In order to reduce the fragility of the euro / dollar parity, it is necessary to find permanent solutions not instantaneous measures. In this context, focusing on producing more value-added products should be our top priority.
Fairs play an important role in export attacks
Ahmet Öksüz, emphasizing that the Turkish textile sector combines its logistics capability with its integrated production power, said “By this means, we have successfully survived the difficult test experienced with the pandemic. Thanks to the studies we did, we proved once again that Turkey is the safest trade port. The fairs we organized as ITHIB, our national participation organizations and trade delegations played an important role in our export attacks. Our most important goal in the new period is to represent our sector in the best way with our strong projects. We are aiming to be one of the top 3 exporters of the world in the medium term with our delegations and fairs that will provide market diversity in exports, our projects that we will provide increase in value, and our promotional activities. In this context, our Texhibition Istanbul Fabric and Textile Accessories Fair, which we held for the second time in cooperation with ITO in the past few days, and which attracted great interest, is also of great importance.”
