Around 3 Billion US Dollars of Carpets Exported to 173 Countries in 2018
Last year, 1.5 billion dollars of Turkey’s overall carpet exports with a 66.5% was made by the Union of Southeastern Anatolia Carpet Exporters. In second place was Istanbul Textile and Apparel Exporters’ Association with 25% share in the 566 million dollars of carpet exports. In the carpet exports made on a provincial basis, Gaziantep realized 1.55 billion dollars worth of exports per 68.4% of the total carpet exports. Istanbul exported for 500 million dollars with a share of 22.1%.
In addition to these figures, Turkey exported 2.26 billion dollars of car- pets to 173 countries in 2018. Iraq and Saudi Arabia continued to be Turkey’s major importers. Also, Germany and the United Kingdom were among the top 5 European export markets for Turkey. This indicates that the industry is able to sell goods to different regions in the world in terms of market diversification.
MACHINE CARPETS LEAD THE EXPORTS
The machinery carpet products were the top product group with a 84.1% share in the carpet exports in 2018 amounting to 1.9 billion dollars. The tuff carpet exports, which was the second with 13.2%, amounted to 300 million dollars. Also, 51 million dollars of hand made rugs and 9 million dollars of rugs were exported.
The Middle East countries ranked in the first place among the country groups in 2018 with 720 million dollars. The American countries ranked second with 604 million dollars. In third place were European countries with exports amounting to 443 million dollars.
2019 TARGET 2.5 BILLION DOLLARS
Selahattin Kaplan, Chairman of Turkey’s Exporters Assembly (TIM) and Carpet Industry Board stated that the carpet industry exports in 2018 reached to 2.26 billion dollars with 4.7% increase compared to the previous year. Kaplan announced the 2019 targets as 2.5 billion dollars.
Kaplan said that they will approach new markets in 2019 with innovative products and added, “The carpet industry is of great importance for our country. Our biggest goal in 2019 is to maintain and improve our presence in the countries we export to, and to increase our market share by cooperating with more companies in the new markets.”