According to the export report published by the Istanbul Textile and Raw Materials Exporters’ Association (İTHİB), the Turkish textile industry achieved an export of 8.2 billion dollars in the January-August period of 2021 by increasing 41 percent compared to 2020 and 24 percent compared to 2019. In August, the sector realized an export of 1 billion dollars with an increase of 36 percent compared to the same period of the previous year, reaching the highest August export figure of all time.
İTHİB Chair Ahmet Öksüz said that as the sector, they continue to break new records every month; “By the end of the year, we predict that we will reach our export target of 12 billion dollars by breaking the historical record of the Republic. Together with the ready-to-wear industry, we aim to have a foreign trade surplus of 18.6 billion dollars at the end of the year”. Öksüz stated that they will continue to work as a sector in order to maintain their upward momentum in exports.
“We export to approximately 190 countries”
Ahmet Öksüz noted that this year, the textile industry broke a new export record almost every month by separating positively from the targets of the pandemic; “Our exports increased in 83% of our export markets in the 8 months of the year. We export to approximately 190 countries. In the January-August period, the countries to which we exported the most were Italy with an increase of 56 percent, Germany with an increase of 20 percent and the USA with an increase of 51 percent, respectively. As an industry, we have realized exports worth 11.8 billion dollars in the last 12 months”.
Öksüz disclosed that they went up one step in world textile exports and rose to the fifth rank in 2020, and that the market share of Turkey, which is the second largest supplier of the EU, continues to increase in the European Union countries. Explaining that they get a share of 17.5 percent from the EU’s imports as the Turkish textile industry, Öksüz stated that they recorded significant increases of up to 60 percent in all country groups, especially in the American Countries, Other European Countries and Former Eastern Bloc Countries, besides the EU.
The most exported product was yarn with an increase of 87 percent
When the exports of the Turkish textile and raw materials sector are analysed on the basis of product groups in the January-August 2021 period, the yarn product group took the first place with an increase of 87%. Yarn exports increased by 81.3% in August. In the same period, technical textiles, the second most exported product group, decreased by 10.2%, while exports amounted to 1.6 billion dollars. In August, technical textile exports decreased by 21.6% to 179 million dollars. Home textile exports, which ranked third, increased by 36.6% in the January-August period and amounted to 1.5 billion dollars. The home textile product group increased by 25.8% in August and reached a value of 200 million dollars.
USA is the focal point of the Turkish textile sector exports
The USA, which is the world’s largest textile importer with 43 billion dollars of imports, is one of the most important target markets of the Turkish textile industry and is at the focal point of exports. Organized by İTHİB with the support of the Ministry of Trade and the Turkish Exporters’ Assembly at the beginning of 2020, the “I Of The World New York”, which is the only sectoral export products fair among the Exporters’ Associations, is very important in terms of the sustainable export targets of the sector in the USA.
Despite the global pandemic, with the support of the fair and promotional activities, 2020 exports to the USA increased by 8 percent and amounted to 628 million dollars, reaching the highest export data of all time. In 2020, Turkey jumped one step in the USA’s textile imports and rose to eighth place, while in the first 8 months of 2021, textile sector exports to the USA increased by 51 percent and reached 547 million dollars. İTHİB announced that they aim to exceed their annual exports to the USA in the first 9 months of 2021.