Speaking during an award ceremony in İstanbul for export firms late on Tuesday, Gülle underlined that Turkish textile exporters have left the adverse impact of last year's global financial crisis behind. He said most companies are enjoying a “better than anticipated” boom in new orders for the first half of this year. Gülle noted that his union expects Turkish textile exports to reach $3.5 billion by the end of the first six months this year. "We can say textile exporters do not have to worry much, at least until the end of June," he opined. The Turkish textile industry sustained a 20 percent plunge in exports in 2009 compared to the preceding year. He said the Turkish textile industry recorded a 30 percent increase in growth in January over the same month of 2009. “We expect similar growth will happen in February.” Gülle linked this recovery with increased investments and a recent rise in capacity utilization in textile manufacturing.
Also sharing his comments with Today’s Zaman, İstanbul Ready-to-Wear and Apparel Exporters Association (İHKİB) President Hikmet Tanrıverdi said there has been a significant recovery in textile exports and that they expect to exceed the 2009 figures this year. “We are receiving more and more new orders. We believe 2010 will be better than last year unless an unprecedented development occurs in the markets.” Despite his optimism about rejuvenation this year, Tanrıverdi has some reservations. Most importantly, the İHKİB chairman is worried that the lira could gain in value against foreign currencies, an issue exporters have been raising concerns over for the past few weeks. “We think that the central bank should keep the lira at a favorable level. For instance, TL 1.60 must be the base limit for one US dollar.” Turkish exporters see an overvalued lira as the most significant obstacle preventing better exports. Another concern Tanrıverdi pointed out was a recently emerged threat in the euro zone, triggered by Greece’s heavy debt problem. “Europe is our traditional export market. Some 80 percent of Turkish textile exports go to EU markets. A possible slump in demand from the EU would hamper Turkish exports,” he noted.
Mentioning textile exporters’ efforts to branch out into new markets, he said: “We are glad to see that more Turkish textile exporters are opening to alternative exports markets. Turkey increased its ready-to-wear exports to Middle East and African markets last year while it suffered a remarkable stagnation in exports to the European market.” Tanrıverdi asserted that Turkey has the potential to increase its textile exports to developing markets up to $10 billion annually.
Ekrem Akyiğit, the CEO of Akyiğit Textile, which manufactures apparel under the name Collezione, said there was a noticeable rejuvenation in the domestic wholesale textile market. “We have left the negative impact of the crisis behind. Shopping malls are enjoying an increase in sales,” said Akyiğit, who is also the chairman of Turkey’s United Brands Association (BMD). Noting that customer preferences are also changing, he said people are more interested in the quality of a product than its price when compared to past seasons. “This is mainly because Turkish textile manufacturers have improved their quality in products,” he said, adding that his company has recently invested $480,000 in a research and development (R&D) center to develop high-quality apparel.
