Export Awards Presented in Ready-to-Wear and Apparel Sector

Aegean Ready-made Clothing and Apparel Exporters Association rewarded 69 companies that contributed more than USD 2 million to the export figure of USD 1 billion 306 million. Awards were presented to two companies in the platinum category and eight companies in the gold category at the "Export Stars Award Ceremony" held at Aegean Exporters Associations. The Aegean Ready-made Clothing and Apparel Exporters Association held the "Export Stars Award Ceremony" and the 2019-2020 Ordinary General Assembly simultaneously.   Burak Sertbaş, Chairman of the Aegean Ready-made Clothing and Apparel Exporters Association, stated that awards were delivered to 59 companies—25 in silver and 34 in bronze—via cargo, saying: "The total exports of our 69 award-winning companies amount to USD 952 million. Their share in our exports is 73 percent. Despite pandemic conditions, we achieved a successful performance and reached last year's USD 1.3 billion figure. Nationwide, we achieved USD 17.1 billion in exports. While 1,305 member companies from our association conducted exports, we exported to 167 countries. Turkey's medical textile exports in the first three months of 2021 increased by 192 percent to USD 70 million, while our medical textile exports from the Aegean region reached USD 3 million with a 178 percent increase," he said.

International promotion of companies through AHA

Sertbaş mentioned that in 2020, one national participation fair, three digital fair participations, and one digital trade delegation were organized. "We conducted our fashion design competition, designed to meet the need for innovative and visionary designers in the Turkish ready-made clothing sector, digitally on 17 December 2020 with the TECH-TILITY theme encompassing sustainability and digitalization. Our top three finalists receive cash prizes of TRY 18,000, TRY 13,000, and TRY 8,000 respectively, and are provided with the opportunity to study at internationally recognized design schools abroad. The top 10 finalists are rewarded with the opportunity to visit ready-made clothing fairs. Additionally, we launched a digital promotion project called AHA (Aegean Has Apparel) to enable international promotion of our sector." [caption id="attachment_124375" align="aligncenter"] From left to right; Burak Sertbaş, Chairman of Aegean Ready-made Clothing and Apparel Exporters Association, Nihal Fidan, General Coordinator of Akar Tekstil, Hayati Ertuğrul, Chairman of EGSD Board of Directors[/caption]

EHKİB preparing member companies for a low-carbon economy

Burak Sertbaş said: "In 2020, in cooperation with Istanbul Fashion Academy, we successfully completed nine training programs under the EHKİB Fashion Development Academy Training Program addressing our members in topics including trend and style, brand and marketing, fashion retail and export-oriented subjects. Additionally, online training programs addressing the effects of the Covid-19 process on sector companies were organized. In 2020, a program consisting of 10 trainings covering topics related to trends that emerged during the pandemic was conducted online. Our Sustainability Talks event, which we first held in cooperation with H&M, continued with Ekoten Tekstil, Yeşim Tekstil, Orta Anadolu Tekstil and Uniteks under the title The Route of Ready-made Clothing and Exports: Sustainability. In 2021, our association, in cooperation with Brika Sustainability and Sustainability Academy, organized 12 sustainability-focused online trainings for our members," he said. [caption id="attachment_124376" align="aligncenter"] From left to right; Burak Sertbaş, Chairman of Aegean Ready-made Clothing and Apparel Exporters Association, İsmail Karaman, Group Manager of Uniteks Tekstil, Emre Kızılgüneşler, Vice Chairman of İzmir Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors[/caption]

Sertbaş explained that within the scope of the URGE project on developing sustainable competition in the ready-made clothing sector, the project roadmap was prepared by conducting needs analysis that primarily included one-to-one visits with companies, and continued as follows:

"Critical gaps of the companies participating in the project have been identified and grouped under operational, administrative and environmental sustainability headings within the main axis of sustainable textiles. Two consulting programs were designed to address these gaps. Since 2019, we have been carrying out the URGE Project for increasing export potential in the technical textiles sector. The scope of our project aims for participating companies to produce value-added products, increase their export potential, transition from conventional production to technical textile production, thereby expand their market share and promote sustainable production and exports. With the pandemic, to develop our companies' capacity in the rapidly growing global demand for medical textiles, TEKSMER provides a six-month 'Protective and Medical Technical Textile Product Development Consulting Service.' In this way, support is provided to increase competitive strength at the international level." [caption id="attachment_124377" align="aligncenter"] From left to right; Burak Sertbaş, Chairman of Aegean Ready-made Clothing and Apparel Exporters Association, Melis Vekiloğlu, General Manager of Sun Tekstil, Jak Eskinazi, Coordinator Chairman of Aegean Exporters Associations[/caption]

Digital trade delegation to Spain on 24-28 May 2021

Burak Sertbaş summarized the activities they will conduct in 2021 as follows: "As always, we will organize national participation in Premiere Vision Fair, the largest fair and meeting point of the sector. We will continue promoting our AHA project for the international promotion of our sector on global platforms. A joint digital trade delegation to Spain on 24-28 May 2021 will be organized with the Aegean Textile and Raw Materials Exporters Association and Uludağ Textile Exporters Association. Work will continue within the scope of the Project to Enhance Textile Engineering Perception. National participation organizations in the Munich Fabric Start fairs in Munich, Germany are also planned. Our 16th Fashion Design Competition will be held physically in October 2021, should pandemic conditions improve. Work will continue within the scope of our URGE projects." The 2021 budget of the Aegean Ready-made Clothing and Apparel Exporters Association was set at TRY 12,100,000, and the work program was approved.  

First 10 companies winning awards in platinum and gold categories;