Textile Exports Turned Upward in the First Half of 2021

Jak Eskinazi, President of the Aegean Textile and Raw Materials Exporters Association, commented on textile exports for the first half of 2021:

Jak Eskinazi stated: "As vaccination accelerated while the Covid-19 process continued and physical stores reopened, the expected positive effects began to emerge.

As the Aegean Textile and Raw Materials Exporters Association, we closed June with record-breaking exports of USD 36.5 million, a 122% increase compared to the previous month and as in the other five months. In the January-June period, our exports increased by 126%, and while our exports in the same period last year were USD 92 million, our exports in the first six months of this year rose to USD 208 million.

The top 5 countries to which we exported the most in the first half of this year were, respectively: Pakistan, China, Italy, Portugal and India.

During the pandemic, two important concepts emerged. The first was the change in habits and more conscious use of resources; the second was digitalization. Our association's priority during this period continued to be sustainability, digitalization and high value-added exports as always. Textiles are among the sectors that cause the most environmental damage and lead to the most water waste in the world. Post-corona recovery should target climate crisis, environmentally friendly production and digitalization. Countries that build sustainability and digitalization policies on solid foundations and take rapid action now dominate the global economy. Everyone now knows that the European Union has set a roadmap with the European Green Deal, containing effective regulations to combat climate and environmental challenges. Within the scope of the agreement, new strategies are being defined to achieve targets of reducing carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 and bringing carbon emissions to zero by 2050. To achieve these targets, new sectoral criteria, taxes and business models will be gradually implemented. We aim to raise necessary awareness as a sector and prepare ourselves to turn this situation into an opportunity. The Green Deal could create an opportunity for Turkey to support low-carbon production and thus gain a competitive advantage over high-carbon countries and increase its market share in exports to EU countries. Companies that quickly adapt to Green Deal targets will also gain relative competitive advantage. In this context, we decided to launch a UR-GE project titled "Development of Sustainable Competition in the Textile Sector" in 2021 to raise awareness on sustainability, with the support of the Ministry of Trade. Our project, which is in the demand collection phase, aims to ensure that our members are prepared for the necessary sustainability-related conditions that will affect the sector's dynamics in the coming period, especially the European Green Agreement. We also know that international brands have plans to increase purchases of organic cotton and cotton yarn products from Turkey every year. In fact, some major brands have shifted their orders from the Far East to Turkey. Global apparel brands have targets to source all cotton fibers they use within the next five years from sustainable cotton fibers such as organic or better cotton. The Aegean Region's leading position in organic cotton, organic fabric and organic clothing production in the textile sector is an important advantage. As a region, Aegean cotton closest to organic cotton and regenerated yarns produced in Uşak, where 75% of recycled yarn produced in Turkey is manufactured, are the raw materials that distinguish us. In our province, where cotton, polyester and wool are recycled and converted into yarn, significant investments have been made in this field. In 2021, we aim to export with sustainable production compatible with the green economy while leaving less carbon footprint. We believe that alongside efforts to increase organic cotton production in our country, monitoring to ensure its healthy growth and adoption and support of long-term stable growth models are important for our sector. After the pandemic, supply chains began to shorten and small quantity and short-term orders intensified. This situation brings with it an advantage for developing closer relations between Turkey, which exports most to Europe, and target countries. In this context, we carried out our marketing activities that we could not conduct physically online. With the support of the Ministry of Trade, our association, together with the Aegean Ready-made Garment and Apparel Exporters Association and Uludağ Textile Exporters Association, organized a five-day digital trade mission to Spain, one of the leading markets in the textile and apparel sectors. At the trade mission organized on 24-28 May 2021, 45 Turkish companies held business meetings with more than 100 Spanish buyers.

We plan to conduct our future activities in a hybrid manner as well, and we will continue to benefit from the advantages of online-conducted activities.

  During the pandemic, the Technical Textiles Research and Application Center (TEKSMER A.Ş.), which we brought to the sector in 2014, accelerated its work in the medical field, and at the beginning of 2021, TEKSMER A.Ş. developed a fabric that renders the coronavirus causing Covid-19 inactive within two hours. With positive results obtained from the initial trials of the project launched considering copper's antiviral properties, TEKSMER A.Ş. continues its work to increase the viral protection level of the fiber it developed, and the developed antiviral fabric is targeted for use as medical and protective textiles. Additionally, within the scope of our 'Increasing Export Potential in the Technical Textile Sector' UR-GE project carried out by our association and the Aegean Ready-made Garment and Apparel Exporters Association, consulting services on "Protective and Medical Technical Textile Product Development" were provided to participating companies. Through discussions conducted with participating companies over six months across five main headings, technical textiles were studied separately in the medical or protective technical textiles fields, and thus support was provided to increase the competitiveness of participating companies in the technical textiles field on the international arena. Furthermore, in order to increase interest in the textile engineering profession and encourage our youth to choose textile engineering, we continue promotional campaigns as textile and ready-made garment exporter associations. We provide tuition-free scholarships at least equal to the minimum wage throughout their education to all our students who rank in the top 80,000 in university entrance exams and meet scholarship conditions. By opening paths for youth, protecting ecology, staying current, and in short advancing through intelligent specialization, we will continue to work relentlessly for Turkey's developing and growing economy with our sustainable production plan.