Strong Message for the Ready-Made Garment Sector: "We Cannot Sacrifice Any Sector"

The Aegean Ready-Made Garment and Apparel Exporters Association (EHKİB) held an "Exports Stars Awards Ceremony" for 67 of its members who generated 75% of the USD 1.268 billion in exports achieved in 2025. The ceremony highlighted the strategic role of the ready-made garment sector in Turkey's economy.

Gültepe: "We must treat ready-made garments as the apple of our eye"
Speaking at the ceremony, Mustafa Gültepe, Chairman of the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM), emphasized that despite the ready-made garment sector experiencing USD 4.4 billion in export losses over the past three years, it delivered over USD 12 billion in current account surplus in 2025.

Gültepe stated, "This figure alone demonstrates the importance of ready-made garments to our country's economy. Therefore, we must treat ready-made garments and all our sectors as the apple of our eye. We should not abandon any sector."

Noting that healthy and sustainable growth is possible through production and exports, Gültepe said that net exports have not contributed to growth over the past year, and exports declined by 3.9% in January 2026. Calling for increased current support measures, Gültepe urged the foreign exchange return support to be raised to 8%, employment support to TRY 6,000, and minimum wage support to TRY 2,500.

Average export price in the Aegean region exceeded USD 21
EHKİB Chairman Burak Sertbaş stated that in 2025 they focused on value-based exports rather than growth. While the average export unit price across all sectors nationwide stood at USD 1.6 per kg, Sertbaş noted that this figure reached USD 16.21 per kg in the ready-made garment sector, and USD 21.19 per kg in the Aegean Region.

Noting that they exported to 163 countries and regions with 1,191 member companies throughout 2025, Sertbaş stated that their 2026 targets would focus on sustainable transformation and digitalization alongside high-value-added production, design and branding investments.

Strong organizational performance over 8 years
Sertbaş noted that during his term, they organized 26 national participation exhibitions with 563 company participants, 3 virtual fairs and 4 domestic sectoral fairs; and also carried out 3 UR-GE projects. Stating that they submitted 2 national and 11 international applications under European Union projects, Sertbaş disclosed that the Association was a partner in the Interreg NEXT MED Program Green Transformation call, and the project ranked in the top 79 out of 814 applications with a budget of EUR 2.66 million.

Awards to 67 companies
At the ceremony, bronze awards were given to 39 companies with exports between USD 2-5 million, silver awards to 19 companies with exports between USD 5-20 million, gold awards to 7 companies with exports between USD 20-100 million, and platinum awards to 2 companies with exports exceeding USD 100 million. The 67 award-winning companies contributed USD 940 million to the Association's total exports.