The ready-to-wear and apparel industry achieved the highest annual export of all time with exports of $21 billion 205 million in 2022.
According to the data of the Turkish Exporters’ Assembly (TIM), Turkiye’s exports increased by 3.1% in December 2022 compared to the same period of the previous year, amounting to $23 billion. Thus, the highest December exports have been reached so far.
In January-December 2022, exports increased by 12.9% compared to the same period of 2021, reaching $254.2 billion.
The ready-made clothing and apparel industry, which realized exports of $1 billion 808 million in December 2021, made $1 billion 709 million of exports in December 2022 with a decrease of 5.5%.
In January-December 2022, the ready-made clothing and apparel industry realized exports of $21 billion 205 million with an increase of 4.8% compared to the same period of the previous year. Thus, the sector reached the highest annual export of all time.
A portion of $1.2 billion of the sector’s exports in December 2022 was made from Istanbul. Istanbul was followed by Izmir with $120 million and Bursa with $111 million.
Of the $21.2 billion export of the sector in the January-December 2022 period, $14.7 billion was realized from Istanbul, $1.7 billion from Bursa and $1.4 billion from İzmir.
Most export to Germany
In the ready-to-wear and apparel sector, Germany was the country with the highest export sales in December 2022, with $315 million. Germany was followed by the Netherlands with $150 million and the United Kingdom with $131 million.
In January-December 2022, the sector exported $3.6 billion to Germany, $2.6 billion to Spain and $2 billion to the United Kingdom.
Looking at the country groups to which the most exports were made last month, EU countries ranked first with $1 billion, the Commonwealth of Independent States ranked second with $222 million and other European countries ranked third with $184 billion.
In 2022, the sector exported $12 billion 778 million to EU countries, $2.6 billion to other European countries and $1.7 billion to Middle East countries.
According to TIM data, the ready-to-wear and apparel industry, which exports to 180 countries and regions in December 2022, received a 7.5% share of the country’s total exports in the same period.
Exporting to 215 countries and regions in the whole of 2022, the sector had a share of 8.3% in the country’s total exports.
Mustafa Gultepe, President of Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM) and Istanbul Ready-to-Wear and Apparel Exporters’ Association (IHKIB), in his statement to the AA correspondent stated that ready-made clothing and apparel are among the strategically important sectors for Turkiye with its value-added production, approximately 750 thousand employments, and exports exceeding $21 billion, adding, “We earn $18-19 billion net foreign currency to our country every year.”
Reminding that they started 2022 with an export target of $22-23 billion, Gultepe said:
“The first half passed in line with our expectations. However, due to the difficulties of our companies in keeping prices due to increasing costs, we lost a significant part of the orders coming to our country during the epidemic to countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. We had a loss of $1.5 billion due to the change in the euro/dollar parity. In addition, the expectation of recession in global markets as of the second half of the year had a negative impact on our exports. Despite all these negativities, we increased our exports by 4.8% to $21.2 billion in 2022. Thus, we have reached our highest annual value in exports to date. We aim to increase our ready-made clothing and apparel exports by at least 10% every year.”
Noting that global economies entered 2023 with energy crisis and recession concerns, Gultepe said, “Ready-to-wear and apparel are among the sectors that react the fastest to changes. I believe that ready-made clothing, which is one of the sectors first affected by the contraction in the markets, will recover rapidly with normalization in the second 6 months and will close 2023 with an export rate above 2022.”
Source: AA / Translated by Irem Yildiz