According to the Turkey Exporters’ Assembly data, $ 50 million of medical textile products were exported in January-October 2019 period. The demand for these products increased greatly worldwide after the Covid-19 epidemic, which affected the whole world in a short time. Exports increased to $ 1 billion 83 million in the first 10 months of 2020 with the rapid adaptation of the Turkish textile manufacturer to the process and the capacity increase.
Turkey exported medical textile product to 167 countries. Germany ranked first among these countries with $ 165 million of exports and followed by the USA with $ 160 million, England and the Netherlands with $ 104 million. Turkey made $ 24 million of exports to China, the world’s largest exporter of medical textile products before the epidemic.
Surgical gowns accounted for $ 700 million of the total exports
Burak Sertbas, Chairman of the Board of the Aegean Ready-to-Wear and Apparel Exporters’ Association, stated that many companies turned to medical textile products such as masks and gowns during the epidemic period, and that medical textile products worth $ 95 million were exported in October. Providing information about the sub-items of medical textile exports, Sertbas said:
‘’ The share of surgical gowns is $ 700 million, and the export share of medical masks is $ 173 million. As EIB (Aegean Exporters Union), we exported $ 73 million of medical products in a 10-month period. $ 55 million of this is surgical gowns and $ 8 million is medical masks.’’
Pointing out that medical textile production has been on a horizontal course in the recent period, Sertbas said:
‘’ We have an average monthly export of $100 million. We predict that it will continue at this level. The market is now settled.’’
Referring to the fact that new orders do not arrive due to uneasiness in ready-made clothing, Sertbas said:
‘’ There is no sharp cancellation as in March, but there is no new order. We will receive orders according to the situation of the epidemic. We see that if the epidemic continues and curfews begin at the beginning of the new year, we will have some trouble.’’
Turkey exports masks to Europe
Oktay Gencay, Sales Director of Suhuf Textile stated that while producing military camouflage products, they also entered the production of masks with the epidemic.Noting that they have the capacity to produce 1.5 million masks per day and that there is a constantly increasing demand from the domestic and foreign markets, Gencay said:
‘’ We export to about 30 countries such as Germany, Holland and Denmark. Normally, China was the world’s largest manufacturer.Especially European countries do not look favourably on masks made in China. As such, we have come to meet almost 45 percent of Europe’s need for masks. The demand peaked with the second wave in the epidemic. We export not only to the end user, but also to the health ministries of the countries. The health ministries of France and Britain demanded masks from us, we sent.’’
Top 10 countries Turkey exported medical textile products the most:
Country Export Value
GERMANY $ 165M
USA $ 160.9M
ENGLAND $ 104.5M
NETHERLANDS $ 104.4M
SPAIN $ 49.5M
ITALY $ 44.5M
FRANCE $ 39M
CANADA $ 38.8M
ROMANIA $ 36.9M
QATAR $ 28.3M
source: AA / translated Melisa Karayusufoglu