The Turkish exporter, which lost its competitiveness due to Turkey's low exchange rate – low interest policy, high inflation, rising energy prices, difficulties in accessing finance and the effects of the earthquake, maintains its demand for competitive energy prices.
Speaking at the 2022 Ordinary General Assembly meeting, Aegean Exporters' Unions Coordinator Chairman, Aegean Textile and Raw Materials Exporters' Association Chairman Jak Eskinazi said, "We have put all our problems aside and started to heal the wounds since the day of the earthquake that shook 11 provinces in Kahramanmaraş. We are working to get our colleagues and entrepreneurs there to return to their commercial activities. Şanlıurfa is the textile center of the country and Kahramanmaraş is the textile center of the country. Therefore, all the problems experienced there affect all of us. Our other regions are doing their best to meet orders and demands. Factories in disaster areas also started to recover. They will try to offer our exporters the raw materials and semi-finished products that Turkey needs.” said.
Our industries have no chance to be competitive with today's exchange rate
President Eskinazi pointed out that a record cotton production of over 2022 million tons was realized in the 1 season, and that cotton imports decreased, and said, “Due to the recession in the world and the reduction in orders, we could not use our advantage in cotton. We hope that the world markets will return to their previous course, orders will increase and the pressure on the exchange rate will decrease in the coming days. Not all our sectors have a chance to be competitive with today's exchange rate. We lost our competitiveness as energy prices in the world fell below tomorrow. If energy prices were cut by half, we could maintain our competitiveness. The important thing is the competitive exchange rate, competitive energy price.” he said.
The pressures of the Central Bank should be removed as soon as possible.
Jak Eskinazi said, “We believe that no matter who comes to power in the elections, we will listen to our voice. Our country should protect the textile industry. Exchange rate and energy prices should be improved. We will go to ITMA, textile machinery fair in Milan in May. Every year we were going to renew our factories for investment, this time we are going to see what has been done. We hope that we will be in a position to make these investments with the fulfillment of orders in the coming months. It is not possible without investment, at the moment we are just trying to protect our capital. We have a lot of credit problems. It is imperative that the credit taps be opened, if not, the industrialist will have a hard time. I wish the pressures of the Central Bank to be removed as soon as possible.” he ended his speech.
The decrease in Turkey's growth trend will become evident in the second half of the year
After the general assembly meeting, Dokuz Eylül University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences Department of Economics Lecturer Prof. Dr. Yaşar Uysal, conveying the current developments in the Turkish and world economy to textile and apparel exporters, said, “We have entered a recession period in globalization. There is international dependency. The solution of this dependency may result in regionalization and blocking. The European Green Deal will bring procurement to the fore. Turkey's current economic structure is not compatible with the age. Turkey's industry and agriculture need to grow. There is a serious mismatch between the production pattern and the consumption pattern. The decrease in Turkey's growth trend will become evident in the second half of the year.” made its assessment.
German procurement law in force
Lawyer Sevil Eskicioğlu, on the other hand, is committed to protecting human rights/preventing violations of human rights (child labor, slavery, unionisation ban, job security, working in conditions that do not comply with social standards and social compliance, etc.) in the international supply chains of Germany, one of Turkey's leading export markets in the fashion industry. He made a presentation on the legal processes related to the Supply Chain Law, the scope of the law, the protected rights, the scope of the obligations, how Turkish companies will be affected and the European Union (EU) Regulation.