Turkish Clothing Manufacturers’ Association (TGSD) recently organised the 13th Istanbul Fashion Conference in collaboration with the Istanbul Apparel Exporters Association (IHKIB).
Speaking in the same conference, Mustafa Varank, Industry and Technology Minister of Turkey informed that the country ranks 6th amongst all garment exporting destinations in the world.
According to Mustafa, Turkey clocked US $ 16.5 billion (TL 130 billion) from its garment exports in 2019, majority of which was contributed by high-fashion garments.
“Readymade garment industry accommodated the highest export value in manufacturing and industry sectors,” shared Mustafa.
What’s noteworthy is that UVR (Unit Value Realisation) of shipped garments in 2019 was US $ 13 per kg, while the same hovers at an average of US $ 1.30 in exports of other commodities.
Mustafa kept on speaking about the RMG sector and commented, “The RMG manufacturing industry has rapidly developed itself since its inception in 1980s and has adapted to the ever-evolving market conditions to reach a desired quality and productive level.”
Turkish garment manufacturing industry directly employs over 1 million workers, of which 68 per cent are female.
“We have supported TL 7.5 billion (US $ 950 million) of fixed investment with the Government’s incentive certificates that has created 350,000 more jobs recently,” asserted Mustafa.