The Goal of the Carpet Industry; Being the First in the World in Export

The carpet industry, which has made a great effort for its 2022 target, exported 450.5 million dollars in the period of January-February 2022. During this period, 378.5 million dollars of machine-made carpets, 65 million dollars of tufted carpets, and 7.2 million dollars of hand-made carpets were exported. Most carpet exports were made to American countries, including the USA, Canada, Brazil, and Mexico. In the January-February period, 158 million dollars of carpets were exported to these countries. EU countries took second place in the list of the countries to which the most carpets were exported, with export of 89 million dollars. About 75 million dollars were exported to Middle East countries, including Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the UAE.

2022 target in carpet export is 4 billion dollars

TIM Carpet Sector Board met under the chairmanship of Salahattin Kaplan and evaluated the agenda. Discussing the export figures for 2021, the board also exchanged views on the targets for 2022. President Salahattin Kaplan stated that they exceeded their 2021 target of 3 billion dollars in 11 months of the year and that they set an export target of 4 billion dollars from Turkey in 2022. Kaplan said, ‘‘With the troublesome effect of the pandemic in the last two years, the mandatory closures in many countries, the halt in production, the excessive increase in raw material prices and logistics due to this, the disruptions in the supply chains adversely affected the sectors. Adding to the problems experienced in some country markets, Turkish carpet exporters managed to exceed their 2021 targets by working night and day in this period.’’

We Export Carpets to 177 Countries

Turkish carpet exporters made a significant contribution to the national economy figures by exporting 3 billion 50 million 745 thousand dollars to 177 countries between January 1 and December 19, 2021, by exporting carpets to 177 countries around the world. Kaplan continued his statements as follows, ‘‘American Countries, the most important market for our industry, took the first place with exports of 1 billion 188 million 594 thousand dollars, which is 39% of the total exports. In the second place were the European Union Countries with 537 million 68 thousand dollars and in the third place was the Middle East Countries with 524 million 121 thousand dollars. These country groups were followed by African countries with 311 million 366 thousand dollars, other European countries with 161 million 22 thousand dollars, and former Eastern Bloc countries with 132 million 066 thousand dollars, and we exported 7 million 428 thousand dollars of carpets to the free zones.’’

Gaziantep Carpet Export Leader

Evaluating the 2021 carpet export figures, President Salahattin Kaplan stated that Gaziantep maintained its leadership in Turkey by exporting 2 billion 180 million 451 thousand dollars of carpets in the period between January 1 and December 19, 2021. Kaplan indicated as follows, ‘‘Gaziantep is almost the base of carpet production and export, and the most carpet export from Turkey was realized from Gaziantep. Istanbul ranks in second place with 632 million 877 thousand dollars, and Uşak has third place with 75 million 435 thousand dollars. These provinces were followed by other provinces.’’

Uğur Uysal, President of the Istanbul Carpet Exporters’ Association (IHİB), stated that Turkey is the second-largest carpet exporter after China and continued as the following, ‘‘We are the world leader in the production and export of machine carpets, especially our manufacturers from Gaziantep have a great contribution to this success. By the end of this year, we aim to rise to first place in the world in carpet exports.’’

Handmade carpet production was affected unfavorably during the pandemic period

Noting that the export of machine-made carpets was positively affected during the pandemic process, Uğur Uysal continued: ‘‘The pandemic period negatively affected the sale and export of hand-made carpets. The decrease in the number of tourists entering the country had a significant impact on the negative impact of handmade carpets. With the whole world closed to their homes, everyone’s need to renew their belongings at home, and the ease brought by online trade, especially in machine carpets, a serious sales graph has been achieved.’’

‘‘We are experiencing serious problems in the field of raw materials and logistics’’

Uğur Uysal, who expressed that there are various problems in machine carpeting as in hand-made carpets, finalized his statements as follows, ‘‘The biggest problem in machine carpeting is the lack of trained personnel. There is a serious employment gap in areas such as design, engineering, weaving, and apparel that will meet the rapid growth in the sector.’’ Emphasizing that one of the biggest problems of the industry is that almost all raw materials are imported, Uysal said, ‘‘There are 2 raw materials used most in carpet yarn. Polyester and polypropylene. Thanks to the investments made by SASA in polyester, the polyester group has started to turn from import to domestic spinning, albeit, to some extent. For the raw material of polypropylene yarn, PP type also needs additional investments in addition to Petkim.’’