Capital of ready-to-wear posts strong exports data

BURSA – Anatolia News Agency

Employees work at a garment facility in the northwestern province of Bursa. DHA photo

The northwestern province of Bursa, a hub of Turkey’s textile industry, has shipped more than $1 billion in textile and ready-to-wear exports in the first seven months of this year, up from $984 million in the same period last year.

The province’s textile exports were up by 8.37 percent year-on-year, reaching $721.7 million between January and July, according to data from the Uludağ Exporters’ Associations (UİB). The figure was $665.9 million last year. Ready-to-wear exports registered $294.1 million, posting a 7.64-percent decrease in the same period. Ready-to-wear exports were at $318.4 million in the first seven months of last year.

Bursa’s textile producers shipped goods to nine free-trade zones and 116 countries and autonomous regions, while ready-to-wear firms exported to seven free-trade zones and 114 countries and autonomous regions.

Bursa’s textile exports managed to register a 0.53 percent increase, reaching $92.1 million, while ready-to-wear exports declined 13.14 percent to $41.8 million.

Separately, a decline in fruit and vegetable exports from Bursa, mostly to debt-crisis-hit European markets, were cushioned by market diversification into the so-called “Arab Spring” countries, according to the Uludağ Fruit and Vegetable Exporter’s Union. In the first seven months of the year, fruit and vegetable exports from Bursa decreased 1.71 percent overall, while they shot up thousands-fold to some Arab countries.

Most exports were made to the U.K. despite posting an 11.58-percent year-on-year decrease in the first seven months of 2012. Exports fell by 27.8 percent to Germany, by 16 percent to the Netherlands, by 17.3 percent to Italy, by 26.4 percent to France, by 44.7 percent to Belgium, by 22.7 percent to Greece and by 55.7 percent to Spain. But there was a 7.87-percent increase in Bursa’s fruit and vegetable exports to Lebanon, and increases of 1.25 percent to Iraq, 5.57 percent to Libya and 4.36 percent to Algeria.