The textile industry has been among those severely hit by the global economic crisis. In line with that fact, the industry ended last year with a contraction of 25 percent.

The industry’s total export for the year was worth $77 million, according to the Antalya Textile Exporters Union. Despite the general downward trend in the industry, its exports to Russia rose 169 percent last year when compared to the previous year.

The industry’s exports to Russia skyrocketed in 2009, making the country Turkey’s sixth-largest customer, said Azize Kalkavan, chairwoman of the Antalya Textile Exporters Union. In terms of overall trade volume, Russia ranked 15th among countries importing from Turkey. Turkish textile companies’ exports to Russia totaled to $4 million in 2009, said Kalkavan.

Germany kept its lead as Turkey’s biggest textile importer in 2009, she said. Germany’s textile imports from Turkey amounted to almost $19 million last year, Kalkavan added. France was the runner up in the list of countries Turkish textile companies exported to the most. France’s textile exports from Turkey totaled $8.5 million. France was followed by the United Kingdom with $7.5 million.

Regarding possible reasons for the increase in Turkey’s textile exports to Russia, Mehmet Gevenci, 54-year-old textile exporter, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review that the Russian market had shown great improvement in the last few years, which reflects not only on its textile industry but on many other industries as well.

“This is basically related to the increase in the income level of the Russian people. The country seems to have healed the wounds opened by the bad experiences in the past, and now it is a prospering time for them,” Gevenci said.

Behind the success of Turkey’s textile sector are the reasonable prices, said Gevenci. Turkish companies produce high-quality products at affordable prices, he added. That is an advantage the country has compared to European countries that have raw material shortage and high production costs.

“China may threaten the sector”

Ali Rıza Ermiş, a 38-year-old textile exporter, said although Turkey’s textile industry has a sound position in many European markets and the Russian market, other countries might threaten this position, especially China, which manages to have even lower production costs.

“China’s main cut in production cost is provided by low personnel expenses. Many Chinese workers are not qualified, so employing them costs almost nothing,” said Ermiş. On the contrary, Turkey’s textile industry is on its way to unionization, which effectively helps set the standards at a workplace and in establishing salary policies.

Although the textile industry contracted 25 percent in 2009, that figure was still much lower compared to the contraction experienced in other industries, said Kalkavan.

“Despite the negative data, the textile industry’s share in Turkey’s total exports rose to 5.7 percent in 2009 from 5.3 percent,” she said. The industry’s target was to implement exports worth $106 million this year, said Kalkavan.