As the crisis in the apparel industry in Türkiye deepens, the decline in exports to Europe confirms the current outlook. Mediterranean Apparel Exporters’ Association (AHKİB) Board Chairman Gürkan Tekin stated that Türkiye has become one of the most expensive countries in the world in apparel production, and that the weakening of the industry’s competitiveness in the Spanish, French, Italian and German markets has reached alarming levels.
Tekin said that the Turkish apparel and garment industry experienced a 10 percent decrease in exports in the last 7 months and indicated that this decrease in AHKİB’s exports was at the level of 1.1 percent. He commented: “European fashion giants are now shifting their supplies to Far Eastern countries, primarily Pakistan, India and North African countries. Unfortunately, we no longer have the opportunity to compete against these countries due to increasing costs against the horizontal course of the exchange rate.”
“We expect affordable and long-term loans to be implemented urgently”
Gürkan Tekin noted: “In a large part of Europe, there is a change in the spending habits of consumers due to inflation and economic uncertainties. As economic growth slows down, especially in major markets such as Germany, France and Italy, consumers are becoming more cautious. In this emerging outlook, as the Turkish apparel and garment industry, our exports decreased by 25 percent in the Spanish market, 16 percent in the French and Italian markets and 10 percent in the German market in the January-July period of 2024. Our industry, which exported 10.4 billion dollars in the last 7 months, lost approximately 723 million dollars in the Spanish, French, Italian and German markets during this period compared to the same period last year. These losses seriously make it difficult for our companies to survive. We expect the implementation of affordable and long-term loans supported by Eximbank and the Credit Guarantee Fund urgently in order for our industry to survive and continue its sustainable production.”
“Positive discrimination should be applied to the apparel and garment industries, which are an employment warehouse”
Emphasizing that companies that resisted shutting down in the apparel industry, which provides employment for approximately 1 million people and is one of the leading industries in exports, had to lay off workers, Gürkan Tekin drew attention to the fact that several companies have closed their doors or declared bankruptcy in the face of cost increases, electricity, fuel and natural gas price hikes. He continued his words by saying: “The number of those who interpret the point reached in our industry as ‘the chips are down’ is increasing. We believe that positive discrimination should be applied to the apparel and garment industries, which are a source of employment, in order to prevent irreparable losses, through tax reductions, financing facilities, incentives for women entrepreneurship, regional development supports and incentives for sustainable production, and we expect our government to take urgent steps in this direction.”
AHKİB’s exports in July were 31.8 million dollars
Stating that they are trying to make the best use of opportunities in existing markets in order to survive as an industry, and making extraordinary efforts to increase exports by opening up to new markets, Gürkan Tekin evaluated AHKİB’s export performance in July: “As an association, we realized 31.8 million dollars in foreign sales in the 7th month of the year. During this period, our association, which evaluated 3,809 tons of products in international markets, exported the most women’s outerwear, men’s outerwear and other ready-made goods. These three product groups constituted 85 percent of our regional exports. We realized 16.2 million dollars in women’s outerwear, 6.5 million dollars in men’s outerwear and 3.2 million dollars in other ready-made goods. In the mentioned period, the Netherlands, Spain and France were in the top three places on the list of countries we exported the most to. We reached an export value of 11 million dollars in the Dutch market, 5.8 million dollars in the Spanish market and 1.9 million dollars in the French market. Ukraine, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, the Netherlands, Poland and Iraq were the countries where we achieved significant increases in export volume in July.”