“Turkey’s model of production in the textile and apparel sectors has a unique balance, said Gülle in an interview with the Turkish Daily News. From this point of view, it is different from all other major manufacturers. For example, countries like China and India make use of their cheap labor advantage with production capacity. Even if they create a product at a reasonable price, it seems that it will be impossible for them to catch up with Turkey’s production elasticity and design value in the near future. Even if countries like Italy and Spain seem to be developed in the field of quality and design, they are disadvantaged in terms of price. Turkey has both quality and reasonable prices . “According to Gülle, the share of the textile and apparel sectors in Turkey’s total exports was 27 percent in the first quarter of 2006. In other words, one out of every four dollars of export revenue comes from the textile and apparel sectors . Both sectors gained $4.8 billion in export revenues over three months. The textile sector realized export sales of $5 billion, and the apparel sector realized export sales of $13 billion at the end of the last month. This shows that ours is the leading sector in Turkey’s total export .Gülle noted that China has caused a disaster in the textile sector. The share of Chinese textile products increased from 9 to 13 percent in the U.S. market and also increased its share of ready-to-wear products from 19 to 26 percent .China has exported $25 billion worth of goods to the United States. This equals one-third of Turkey’s total exports .Gülle said that attempts to organize fashion weeks like the ones in Paris and Milan had been made in the past .If you ask me whether Turkey will be able to organize such weeks in coming years, I would say yes. But this is a more difficult and longer process than expected . “Source: Turkish Daily News .

Date:6/4/2006

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