Unveil The Mystery Of Turkey And Greece'S Textile Industry

Turkey and Greece, as the hub of Eurasia, have a long history and culture. The rich and unique cultural heritage of the two countries endows different development paths and styles of the textile and garment industry. The exotic fashion of Turkey's home textiles and Greek fashion clothes containing Aegean civilization penetrated the heavy fog of history, which affected the fashion industry today.

The Chinese textile and garment industry delegation led by the Chinese Textile Industry Federation Gao Yong party secretary and Secretary General went into Turkey and Greece in from November 6 to 13, 2019 to understand the development status of the modern textile industry behind the mysterious ancient civilization and explore opportunities for cooperation.

The delegation visited Turkey for the first time, a magical country with six faces, both classical and modern, Eastern and western, developed and developing. Turkey has a population of about eighty million, and has been developing rapidly in recent years. In 2018, GDP grew by 2.6% and its per capita GDP reached 9632 US dollars. It has become a new emerging economy after China, Russia, India, Brazil, South Africa and other BRICs.

Turkey is the world's second largest exporter of carpets and socks, the third largest exporter of knitted garments, the fourth largest exporter of home textiles, and the fifth largest exporter of fabrics. The total output value of textile and garment industry is 90 billion US dollars. Turkey textile and garment industry employs 960 thousand people, accounting for 26% of the total number of manufacturing jobs and 4 million 100 thousand tons of fiber processing. In 2018, Turkey's textile and clothing exports increased by US $27 billion 900 million, an increase of 4% over the same period, of which 12 billion 500 million US dollars in textile exports and 15 billion 400 million US dollars in clothing exports.

Turkey across Asia and Europe, the excellent geographical location and good textile industry foundation make Turkey one of the largest textile and garment suppliers in Europe, especially many European fast fashion brands prefer to purchase in Turkey.

Turkey has a more complete textile and garment industry chain, and the textile and garment industry plays a decisive role in Turkey's economy. There are more than 56000 textile and garment enterprises and 910 thousand of them employ. The industry has the characteristics of cluster development, mainly concentrated in three major regions: the Marmara region, the Aegean Sea area and the library area. Turkey's cotton also has some influence, its per unit area and quality are improving continuously, and its lint yield is 806 thousand tons in 2018. Because of its special geographical advantages, Turkey is still one of the important trade hubs, and its total textile and apparel trade ranks the top ten in the world.

In 2018, Turkey imported 2 billion 50 million dollars of textiles and clothing from China, accounting for 9.9% of Turkey's total imports from China. In the same period, textile and clothing accounted for 8.4% of total export trade to China, and the export amount was 240 million US dollars. In order to protect the development of local textile and garment industry and reduce the impact of international market on domestic industry, the Turkey government has greatly increased import tariffs on textile and clothing in recent years. At the same time, it provides incentive policies for processing enterprises. Many Turkey textile and garment companies have imported semi-finished products from other countries such as China. After processing and finishing, they have enjoyed the relevant tax and fee reduction policies in North America and Western Europe.

　　 Located in the central part of Turkey is Dunzi Li, an important textile industrial cluster in Turkey, and also a cotton producing area. During its visit to Downey Li, the delegation visited Downey Export Association.

Mr. Huseyin Memisoglu, chairman of the Downey Export Association, said: the Downey export association has 2000 member companies, and more than 2000 products of different categories are sold to 180 countries each year, of which 60% are sold to the European market, 42% of the products are textiles, and home textile products such as towels and bedding products account for a large proportion. In recent years, the association has focused on promoting the design and fashion capabilities of textile and garment industry, and regularly organized fashion shows and other activities to help enterprises enhance brand influence.

In addition, dairi is building an industrial area. The park is 5 kilometers away from the airport and convenient for transportation and logistics. We hope that foreign high quality textile and garment enterprises will enter the city and jointly promote the sustainable development of Turkey's textile industry.

Menderes is a subsidiary of AKCA group, which accounts for 61% of the total business of the group. It mainly produces household textiles such as bedding, decorative cloth, shirt fabrics and so on. Founded in 1958, after more than half a century of development, it has developed into an international textile enterprise with more than 4000 employees and vertical integration.

At present, its products are exported to 41 countries, including 57% in Europe, 28% in the United States, and 15% in the local market. At the same time, Menderes attaches great importance to social responsibility and attaches importance to sustainable development. The company has been working with a number of Chinese enterprises to import some yarn and grey cloth from China. The yarn and fabric enterprises in the delegation communicated with the company on upstream and downstream cooperation.

In addition, the delegation entered the garment factory of Kayank Tekstil. Kayank Tekstil is a whole industry chain enterprise covering yarn, fabric and clothing. The company now employs 1600 people, including 400 clothing and 40 million US exports. Clothing products are woven garments, for LACOSTE, MAXMARA, ZARA and other international famous brand production and processing.

　　 Greece is located in the southernmost part of the Balkans. It is located in the Eurasian hub and has obvious regional advantages. As a member of the European Union, Greece has played a role as a European gateway, and its strategic position is very prominent. Greece is an important cotton producer and exporter in the European Union. In 2018, 307 thousand tons of lint cotton were produced in Greece, accounting for 80% of the annual cotton production in the EU. At present, the Greek textile and garment industry mainly focuses on the research and production of high value-added products, pays attention to the training of design ability and provides high quality design services to customers. Its capacity basically transferred from local to India and Turkey, and the number of local production enterprises is relatively small.

The silk industry is one of the oldest and most important textile industries in Greece. Textile and clothing is one of the important export products of Greece, accounting for about 4.3% of the total export volume. In 2018, total exports of Greek textiles amounted to US $1 billion 677 million, of which total textile exports amounted to US $972 million, total textile exports amounted to US $705 million, and total imports of textiles and clothing amounted to US $2 billion 749 million, of which total textile imports amounted to US $850 million and total imports of clothing amounted to US $1 billion 899 million.

From the perspective of exports, cotton is the most important export product besides clothing. In 2018, Greece exported 399 million US dollars, accounting for 23.8% of the total exports of textiles and clothing. The main export destinations for cotton were Turkey, Egypt, China, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Vietnam. From the point of view of imports, chemical fiber filament, staple fiber and related fabric products are the most important imported products except garments. In 2018, imports amounted to US $212 million. China was the first importing country for these products, followed by Turkey and Italy.

During the Greek research, the delegation communicated with the Greek clothing association, the Greek Fashion Association and many cotton textile enterprises. The Greek government attached great importance to this delegation's visit and sent out the Minister of investment and development of Greece to attend this exchange conference. During the survey, the delegation also visited many textile and garment production and design enterprises in the field.

During his inspection, Gao Yong said that Turkey and Greece were important partners in building China's "Silk Road Economic Belt" and "twenty-first Century Maritime Silk Road", echoing the initiative launched by China and the two countries played an intermediary role. China's textile industry has been in a low growth stage in recent years. To accelerate the pace of industrial adjustment, we must change the export oriented industry development mode. At present, China's import of yarn and clothing is increasing. The promotion of domestic and foreign policies has accelerated the speed of outward transfer of production capacity. At present, the regional structural adjustment is rapidly extending from the garment industry to the textile industry. Turkey and Greece have strong advantages in brand and fashion design. We hope that the two sides will strengthen close cooperation and win each other so as to realize the high quality development of the textile industry.