Aegean Exporters 'Unions Coordinator President Jak Eskinazi and Aegean Ready-to-Wear and Apparel Exporters' Association (EHKİB) President Burak Sertbaş attended the panel where the Aegean Clothing Manufacturers Association (EGSD) was putting the supply industry within pandemic into agenda. The moderator was at the meeting, Okay Şimşek, Deputy Chairman of the EGSD Board of Directors.
Ertuğrul said that with the impact of the Pandemic of 2020, it created unexpected effects in the ready-to-wear and supply sector in our country as well as all over the world, ‘’Although our exports have accelerated in a positive direction after June, the problems experienced in an area within the ecosystem leaves its effect on the industry as a whole. We are pleased to host important representatives of our industry and welcome their ideas on these issues today, where we will talk about the contraction in the market during the pandemic process, the effects of drastic changes in foreign exchange and its impact on our industry and the increase in yarn prices with their present effects on the supply chain.’’
Technical textile exports reached 3 billion dollars
Aegean Exporters Union Coordinator Chairman Jak Eskinazi, said that technical textile exports in Turkey in general between January 2020 - December period, has reached 3 billion dollars by 76 percent increase while in the Aegean region, it has increased to 194 million dollars by 98 per cent.
"While our technical textile exports and our infrastructure works on this area have increased, the importance of the Technical Textiles Research and Application Center, which we established in 2014 and whose primary working areas are protective, medical and sports technical textiles, has increased even more in this period. The intersection of TEKSMER's priority areas with the prominent product groups during the pandemic process has provided an advantage for technical textile production and export in our region. "
EIB rises with sustainability and digitalization
Eskinazi pointed out that the two other rising trends apart from technical textiles are sustainability and digitalization with the effect of the pandemic in the textile and apparel sectors, and reminded that the Aegean Exporters' Associations declared 2020 as the "Year of Sustainability".
“Our Aegean Exporters Associations Sustainability Committee worked intensively in the digital world despite the corona virus and created “Aegean Exporters Associations Sustainability Manifesto.” Our Manifest will serve as a roadmap for our sustainability-related studies in the upcoming period. We plan to take active roles in national and international networks on sustainability. For this purpose, in 2019, we became a member of the Global Compact, the largest initiative of the United Nations regarding sustainability, as the Aegean Exporters Union. Developments in the field of digitalization brought distant markets closer. We made new commercial connections with the virtual fairs and virtual trade delegation organizations we achieved in 2020. Thanks to digitalization, our exporters have started exporting to countries they have never even thought of at the beginning of 2020.’’
Turkish cotton is non-GMO - branded as GMO Free
Referring to the prices of raw materials, Jak Eskinazi added that cotton prices continue to increase and that there are serious difficulties in the supply of yarn and fabric, "For example, it would be an appropriate decision to abolish the 3% tax on American cotton in this process."
Stating that they have predictable exchange rate expectations, Eskinazi said, “When we take sustainability into our agenda, we will take step forward, in fact, carbon footprint taxes will begin in Europe. We must act now. Turkish cotton is completely GMO-free - it has been branded as GMO Free, we are promoting it to the whole world, the roro voyages from Izmir shorten the distances, will provide a great advantage for our industry in terms of freight. I believe that our industrialists will work in cooperation in this period when product supply is getting harder and we will challenge the process by getting stronger.”
Environmentally-Friendly products preferred by more than 60 percent of consumers
Burak Sertbaş, Chairman of the Aegean Ready-to-Wear and Apparel Exporters Association, said that with the pandemic, global ready-to-wear retail giants have begun to review their supply chains.
"As a result of this re-evaluation, we have seen an expectation to move textile and ready to wear industry to Turkey, an area of industry dominated by Far-Eastern Nations. Decisive factors in this verdict are the strategic position of Turkey and its strengths in production. We may expect an issue arising from capacity. However, the only way to overcome this problem is the investment. Unpredicted exchange rates may result in a trauma for us while making investment decisions. Another point I would like to mention within pandemic about the contraction in the market is consumption habits. As same situation goes on around Europe that is our biggest export market with the shut downs, home office work and reasons alike all has resulted in the reduction in overall demand. During the destructive Covid-19, we observed that sustainability has become a topic of integration in the consumer market specifically in textiles and ready to wear products. A research done by McKinsey & Company shows that 60 per cent of the consumers and above prefer environmentally friendly products. Consumers pushing us for the manufacture of sustainably and environmentally friendly products.
Raw material and freight prices are pushing exporters
Underlining that the common problem of all ready-to-wear exporters is the low exchange rate and the rising yarn and fabric prices in the face of pandemic, Sertbaş continued as follows: “We are experiencing serious difficulties in procuring all kinds of knitted fabrics containing cotton, polyester, bamboo and viscose, especially organic fabrics. Increase in raw material prices brought production to a halt in some companies. Some of them already started to accept order cancellations from customers. Increases in freight prices also increase the operational cost of companies. On the other hand, our basic costs such as labor and energy expenses have also increased. But we cannot reflect these increases in our prices. Buyers do not accept this. Increases in raw material prices made procurement decisions difficult, while the dollar's downward trend made it difficult for us to compete in price.
Price stability cannot be achieved both in exports and in the domestic market. Producers who buy raw materials while the exchange rates are high have to export the products they produce at low exchange rates. Our January export figures increased, but if the exchange rate volatility and the increase in raw material prices continue, we will have difficulties in achieving our 2021 export target. "
Ready-to-wear and apparel industry in top three in exports despite the pandemic
Textile and garment industry of the pandemic, despite the pandemic ranked in the first three with $ 17.1 billion exports after the automotive and chemicals in Turkey, Burak Sertbaş said, "As Aegean Clothing and Apparel Exporters in the Union we maintained our level of exports last year with 1.3 billion dollar export. Medical products have a big share in this. The highest rise occurred in medical technical textile products with the effect of the pandemic. In Turkey, in medical textile exports we experienced an increase by % 2:204 with 1.4 billion dollar, in this period we exported 92 million dollar worth of medical technical textiles from Aegean Regions. In the account of increase in these product classes, surgical dresses and masks capturing the biggest share. With the elimination of the grant conditions in mask and surgical dress exports, we can raise our medical textile exports.’’
In the panel, İZTO Assembly Vice President İrfan Erol, EBSO Assembly Member Fatih Güven and Garment Sub-Industrialists Association (KYSD) Chairman Murat Özpehlivan also expressed their opinions.
