Ready-to-wear sector Turkey’s third-biggest exporter
The ready-to-wear sector — Turkey’s former export champion until the end of the 2005 — is now the country’s third-biggest exporter, according April data.
The ready-to-wear sector was the country’s biggest exporter from 2000 to 2005, according to information from Undersecreteriat for Foreign Trade and Turkish Exporters’ Assembly (TİM) authorities. But by the end of 2006, it was surpassed by the automotive sector. This month it was also passed up by the iron and non-iron metals sector, causing the ready-to-wear sector to drop to third place. In 2005 it saw $13.7 billion in exports but lost its top spot to the automotive sector, the exports of which amounted to $15.5 billion in 2006. The ready-to-wear sector was worth nearly $14 billion last year.
In April of this year alone the automotive sector’s exports were $1.39 billion and the non-iron metals sector’s exporters stood at $1.13 billion. The ready-to-wear sector was valued at $992 million. Commenting on the subject, TİM Chairman Oğuz Satıcı said all sectors are contributing to Turkey’s exports. Explaining that the ready-to-wear sector’s shares in exports could decrease but the sector would continue developing and growing, Satıcı said: “People from these sectors who are doing their job give the best answer to economists. This sector will continue to grow, not as the shoulder carrying Turkey’s exports, but as a component enriching it.”
source: Today’s Zaman