Turkey:beneficiary from the transformation of Europe’s supply chain

Turkey is one of the important textile and garment manufacturers in the world.Due to its location at an important trade hub,Turkey has become one of the largest textile and garment suppliers in Europe.“Turkey’s textile industry will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 10 percent,” Technavio predicts.

As a quality cotton producing country,Turkey has integrated and diversified production in all sub-sectors of the textile industry by producing and exporting all types of yarns,fabrics,clothing,household textiles,many readymade textile products and technical textiles.Turkish carpet,home products and fur leather products are also known as the “three treasures of textile”,is the most unique product category of Turkish textile industry.Germany,Spain,the United Kingdom,the Netherlands,France,USA,Denmark,Iraq,and Poland are among the leading importers of Turkish textiles.

Textile industry in Turkey is gaining more importance in 2020.The Turkish textile and readyto-wear industry currently employ more than one million people.The textile industry and its supporting sub-sectors now employ a total of 1.67 million people,and this number will increase in the coming years due to additional investments and increased exports.

Turkey’s garment industry exports more than USD 20 billion in 2021 and sales are expected to grow 15 percent to USD 23 billion in 2022 as European markets are expected to import more from Turkey,Mustafa Gultepe,president of the Istanbul Garment Exporters Association (IHKIB),said.

Turkey and its garment industry are facing significant opportunities given supply chain disruptions and global brands’ preference to source from nearby regions,Gultepe said.Benefiting from this,the garment industry recorded its first significant export growth in seven years,reaching USD 18.4 billion in the first 11 months of 2021 and over USD 20 billion in 2021.It broke the export record of USD 18.7 billion set in 2014.Meanwhile,Turkey’s imports of cotton,cotton yarn and cotton textiles increased substantially by 34.2 percent to USD 2.553 billion.

Export situation

This increase in textile-apparel export by Turkey,is in line with the growth in its overall exports to the U.S.that have increased by 45 percent year-on-year during January-November in 2021 to USD 13.2 billion,according to the Turkey-US Business Council.On the other hand,Turkey imported USD 11.7 billion of goods from the U.S.during the same period.

Global economic growth has slowed down significantly affected by the pandemic,the international trade environment is volatile and the scale of trade has decreased.The bilateral trade volume between China and Turkey is on the rise,and Turkey is expected to become China’s new economic growth point under the current situation.

In the first two months of 2022,Turkish readyto-wear and apparel industry exported goods worth USD 3.4 billion.Data from the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM) shows,ready-to-wear and apparel exports to Russia amounted to USD 286.5 million in 2021 while exports of textiles and raw materials amounted to an average of USD 298 million.Russia emerged the second largest export destination after Germany with a 7.7 percent share in 2021,points out Mustafa Senocak,President,Istanbul Leather and Leather Products Exporters Association (IDMIB).

Turkey exported approximately USD 173 million worth of ready-to-wear and apparels,USD 115 million worth of textiles and raw materials to Ukraine in 2021.The ongoing war has made Turkey’s textile and clothing market uncertain with manufacturers seeking to diversify with minimum losses.

Advantages of raw material supply

In the two years since the outbreak,global supply chains have shifted from reliance on Asia,especially China,to focus on Turkey,which also has good production quality and logistics opportunities,a sign of the country’s growing investment in the sector.In its latest analysis,Fitch confirmed that Turkey stands to benefit the most from the transformation of Europe’s supply chain.

Today,Turkish textiles and clothing industry is the most outward-oriented industry that can compete with any other countries in the international markets in terms of high quality and a wide range of products.Turkey has already increased its cotton production,which will put it on track to become less dependent on external sources of cotton.At the same time,the country is very concern to eliminate the remaining problems in the industry,therefore,in near future,Turkey might be the strongest competitor for its major rival countries.