One out of ten local products ‘not suitable’

ISTANBUL

Turkey’s Science, Industry and Technology Ministry’s inspection of 36,000 products from different sectors of the market has shown that 10 percent of them were labeled “unsuitable” last year.

The Ministry tested 127 different brands and models of products from many sectors, including the automobile, white goods and textile sectors. The results revealed that 3,538 out of 36,361 products – 10 percent of the total – in the markets were labeled “unsuitable.” The enterprises that manufacture these unsecured products were fined with 863,000 Turkish Liras and 12 unsecured products were withdrawn from the market last year.

Technology Minister Nihat Ergün pointed out that electrical equipment made up 70 percent of the withdrawn products, adding that they decided to withdraw the products of four brands. He said they would boost investigations on high-risk products this year. The highest rate of unsecured products pertained to road railway (36.7 percent), elevators (29.4 percent), machines (27.5 percent) and automobiles (22.4 percent). Ergün said the checks also applied to imported products with the aim of protecting local manufacturers and the country’s economy from the import of cheap, low-quality products.