Uludağ Textile Exporters’ Association (UTIB), which achieved an export volume of 1 billion and 242 million dollars in January-November, announced its 2023 target as 1 billion and 750 million dollars. According to the news in DHA, UTIB Chairperson Pınar Taşdelen Engin said that despite the rising input costs, fluctuations in foreign currency and energy crises worldwide, the Turkish textile industry achieved exports of 32 billion dollars and a foreign trade surplus of over 17 billion dollars in 2022. Engin, noting that as UTIB, their contribution to export records will increase in 2023, stated that the Turkish textile industry showed a successful performance in 2022 despite all the challenges. Engin said: “Our industry achieved exports worth 9 billion and 563 million dollars in January-November 2022, with an increase of 3.8 percent compared to the same period last year. Thus, the textile and raw materials sector reached the highest January-November exports of all time.”
“Observing environmental sensitivities takes precedence over product costs”
Pınar Taşdelen Engin announced that UTIB, achieving an export value worth 1 billion 242 million dollars in the January-November period of this year, targets 1 billion and 750 million dollars in 2023 and said: “I believe that we will reach our target by the end of the year with the support of value-added production, active participation in foreign exhibitions and commercial procurement committees. However, it is important to remove the obstacles to exporters’ access to finance and to implement additional support in order to achieve this goal. The elimination of financing problems for exporters and industrialists is necessary for the continuity of advanced growth.”
Engin considered the initiation of the first transformation activities in the textile sector within the framework of the European Green Deal, which is on the agenda of the whole world, as an important step that will enable the Turkish textile to maintain its advantageous position, saying: “Respecting environmental sensitivities in production is more important than product costs for the sustainability of our country’s textile industry, especially for the big European brands.”
Engin, referring to the activities carried out by UTIB in 2022, said that the textile industry has undergone a great evolution in order to keep up with the continuous change in the world. Expressing that the industry has adapted to this digital and ecological transformation quickly and firmly, Engin continued her words as follows:
“We put the issues of sustainability, green economy and digitalization at the top of the agenda and worked tirelessly on them. While supporting our entrepreneurs with our Home Textile Design Competition and TechXtile Start-Up Challenge project, which we realized in order to develop the ecosystem of the textile industry, we aimed to integrate R&D, innovation and design culture into our industry. On the other hand, our wide range of fabrics and garments, each of which emerged from various yarns produced in our region, touched the whole world through our national participation organizations both in domestic and international exhibitions. In doing so, we both make our exports sustainable and continue to increase the share of sustainable products.”