Aegean Exporters’ Association (EIB) finalized 2021 with an export strategy based on digitalization, sustainability, design and innovation, exceeding its export target of 16 billion dollars and is advancing to an export figure of 18 billion dollars in 2022. EIB continues to bring new designers to the sector by taking part in four design competitions, namely EIB Fashion Design Competition, Deri’n Fikirler Leather Production and Design Competition, AMORF Natural Stone Project and Design Competition and Ezber Bozan (Game Changer) Design Competition at Design Week Turkey 2021.
Aegean Exporters’ Unions Coordinator President Jak Eskinazi said; “We have EIB Fashion Design Competition, Deri’n Fikirler Leather Production and Design Competition, AMORF Natural Stone Project and Design Competition, our Ezber Bozan Design Competition where we brought the furniture, textile and natural stone sectors together. With these, we are building a future that will be created by designers who think about the economy with high added value beyond the age. Because everyone, every industry needs to do things ‘really’ different, they need different perspectives”.
Design offices in companies are getting stronger
Jak Eskinazi disclosed that they have brought hundreds of designers to Turkey for 17 years and drew attention to the fact that these sectors, for which design competitions are held, export far above the average of Turkey. Eskinazi said; “Our ready-to-wear and apparel industry reached 20 billion dollars, our textile industry reached 10 billion dollars, our furniture industry reached an export volume exceeding 4 billion dollars, and our natural stone industry reached 2 billion dollars and we exported 36 billion dollars in total in the last year by jumping one step each year in global exports”.
Eskinazi reminded that EIB has made a great effort in shaping the design support declaration to support the design offices of the companies and stated that thanks to this declaration, design offices have been formed within lots of companies and at the same time design offices that already exist in the companies have improved. Eskinazi said that today these sectors export with value-added with a strong design ecosystem”.
“We became a pioneer in design mobilization with our EIB Fashion Design Competition”
Aegean Ready-to-Wear and Apparel Exporters’ Association President Burak Sertbaş reminded that Turkey has traditionally been the net exporter sector with the highest foreign trade surplus by far when looking at the quality and value-added power of ready-to-wear and apparel exports. Sertbaş remarked that they are a pioneer in the design mobilization with the EIB Fashion Design Competition, which they have been organizing since 2004 in order to create radical changes in Turkey. He said; “Our young people made their names known to the world by crossing the borders of the country with their original and innovative designs. We covered TECH-TILITY, including sustainable designs that bring nature and technology together in the online final”.
“The key to long-term development is investment in innovation, education and young minds”
President of the Aegean Leather and Leather Products Exporters’ Association Erkan Zandar underlined that the key to Turkey’s long-term development is through investing in innovation, education and young minds and said; “Our production and product quality is above the world standard, and most importantly, our industry has a century of leather processing experience. We provided many young people with international education with the support of our Ministry of Commerce with our Deri’n Fikirler Leather Design and Production Competition, organized for the 8th time by our association in January 2020. We want to improve our design sector by adding different perspectives to our productions with the visions of the designers in the future”.
“Our goal is creating a new economy in line with the principles of Sustainable Mining”
Aegean Mineral Exporters’ Association President Mevlüt Kaya explained that the share of processed products in natural stone exports in Turkey is 60 percent, and 70 percent in the Aegean and said; “AMORF Natural Stone Project and Design competition is one of the cornerstones of our dream and our project on emphasizing the importance of Turkish natural stone and making Turkey the first country that comes to mind when talking about marble in the world. Our goal is to create a new economy in the sector together with miners, industrialists, academicians, designers and architects in line with the principles of Sustainable Mining”. Kaya also stated that in the 2nd year of AMORF, they have increased the number of participants even more and added the country’s world-famous architects, artists and designers to their structures”.
“The way of value-added exports goes through design, innovation and R&D”
President of the Aegean Furniture, Paper and Forest Products Exporters’ Association Cahit Doğan Yağcı emphasized that the way to value-added exports is through design, innovation and R&D, and that is why they brought the furniture, textile and mining industries together for the first time in 2021 with the Ezber Bozan Design Competition. Yağcı stated that the winners had the chance to have their designs produced and that they started to receive job offers by expanding their connections and continued his words as follows:
“Our furniture sector has an annual foreign trade surplus of 2.8 billion dollars and is one of the sectors that make a significant contribution to the country’s economy and employment. While the average kilogram price of our furniture exports in Turkey is $2.76, this figure reaches $3.25 in the Aegean. We are working to increase the average export price of furniture in the Aegean Region to 6 dollars”.
Yağcı stated that they have started preparations to organize the Game-Breaking Design Competition with the theme of ‘Smart’ this year and announced that they will start receiving applications very soon.