EHKİB Focuses on Its Target

EHKİB Focuses on Its Target

Aegean Ready-Made Apparel and Confectionery Exporters Association will focus on sustainability, vocational training, trade fairs and design to reach its USD 1.6 billion export target.

  Fashion exporters from Aegean region met at Aegean Exporters Associations for the 2022 Ordinary General Assembly Meeting. Speaking at the general assembly, Aegean Ready-Made Apparel and Confectionery Exporters Association Board Chairman Burak Sertbaş made the following remarks: "2022 was a challenging year for the ready-made apparel sector due to rising energy prices caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, global economic slowdown and stagnation in our main export market Europe. We felt the impact of these factors on our exports strongly in the second half of the year. Despite all the negative developments, we consider our exports at the end of the year successful both for Turkey overall and for EHKİB. Turkey's ready-made apparel and confectionery exports reached USD 21 billion 205 million in 2022 with a 4.7% increase, while EHKİB exports declined by 1% to USD 1 billion 472 million in 2022. I would like to congratulate our companies once again at our Board of Directors for the contribution they have made to our country and Association through their 2022 exports."

Strong interest from young designers

Chairman Sertbaş said, "We are in a good position as a sector in value-added production. While Turkey's average export price is at USD 1.6, our sector's 2022 export price for Turkey overall is USD 14.1. In 2022, EHKİB's export price was USD 17.9, well above the average. Despite all cyclical difficulties, EHKİB has set our 2023 export target at USD 1.6 billion. I believe that our investment in design plays a major role in reaching our export target. We are organizing the 17th edition of the EIB Fashion Design Competition this year with the theme Seed and strong interest from young designers, and we will hold the finals in the second half of the year." he said.

Ready-made apparel sector stands behind youth

Sertbaş stated, "We will continue the promotion of the AHA Project, which was launched to introduce the ready-made apparel sector on international platforms. As you know, increasing qualified labor in the sector is a very important issue. In this direction, in 2019, we launched a project called 'Improving the Perception of Textile Engineering' to introduce textile engineering to high school students with the aim of responding to the future qualified textile engineer needs of ready-made apparel and confectionery companies. With this project, the occupancy rate in Textile Engineering faculties, which was 40%, increased to the 90s and the departments' base scores increased. Additionally, in connection with this project, we also launched the 'My Profession My Future' project for vocational high schools. We are matching 10 vocational high schools across Izmir with our volunteer member companies, providing material, fabric and maintenance and repair support for various machines in these schools." he said.  

77 companies became export stars

The Aegean Ready-Made Apparel and Confectionery Exporters Association, which organizes the "Export Stars Awards Ceremony" annually for members who export USD 2 million and above, had planned the awards ceremony for the 2022 export stars on 24 February 2023 but cancelled it due to the 6 February Kahramanmaraş earthquakes. The EHKİB Board of Directors presented the awards to the majority of the 77 companies that qualified for awards by visiting them at their facilities, while the remaining awards were presented at the General Assembly. The 77 companies that qualified for awards achieved USD 1 billion 110 million of EHKİB's USD 1 billion 472 million exports realized in 2022, accounting for 75% of total exports.