The fourth meeting of Aegean Export Meetings, organized by Aegean Exporters' Associations in cooperation with Dünya Newspaper, was hosted by Uşak Organized Industrial Zone.
Uşak, which is a pioneer in environment, recycling and sustainability policies throughout Turkey, increased its exports by 2021 percent from $ 54 million to $ 240 million in 368.
The first 2021 companies with the highest exports in 5 were presented their awards with the Stars of Uşak Exports Award Ceremony.
Opening Speeches; Uşak Organized Industrial Zone Chairman of the Board Halil AĞAOĞLU, Uşak Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairman Selim KANDEMİR, Aegean Exporters' Unions Coordinator President Jak ESKİNAZİ, Eximbank Aegean Regional Manager Gülom TİMURHAN.
In the panel moderated by Dünya Newspaper Editor-in-Chief Handan Sema Ceylan, Dünya Newspaper's Sustainability Page Editor Didem ERYAR ÜNLÜ, Dünya Newspaper General Coordinator Vahap MUNYAR and Editorial Board Chairman Şeref OĞUZ, developments in the world and Turkish economy, trade opportunities brought by circular production and green economy, international trade, social, economic and environmental aspects of the sustainability objectives were addressed.
Before the event, Aegean Exporters' Unions Coordinator President Jak Eskinazi, Aegean Exporters' Unions General Secretary Cumhur İşbırakmaz, Uşak Organized Industrial Zone Chairman Halil AĞAOĞLU, Uşak Organized Industrial Zone Vice President Serdar Sağıroğlu; Uşak Governor Dr. He visited Turan Ergün.
We are ready to give all kinds of support to our companies in Uşak.
Noting that Uşak, which is famous for its tarhana and blankets, has come to the fore with its investments in the circular economy in recent years, Aegean Exporters' Unions Coordinator President Jak Eskinazi explained that Uşak Organized Industrial Zone is an important clustering example regarding recycling.
“As Aegean Exporters' Associations, sustainability, zero waste, innovation, R&D, Design, Digitalization and vocational training are the topics that we attach the most importance to for the last 4 years. We are Turkey's first exporter association with zero waste certificate. We became the first exporter association to become a member of the Global Compact, the world's most important sustainability initiative. We have created the Sustainability and Projects Department within the EIB, and we are designing all of our International Competition Development (URGE) Projects, which we carry out with the support of our Ministry of Commerce, with the theme of Sustainability. If our companies in the Uşak Organized Industrial Zone want to come together in a URGE Project, we are ready to give them all kinds of support.”
5 awarded companies realized half of Uşak exports
Jak Eskinazi said, “Our 5 companies realized approximately half of Uşak's exports in 2021. We congratulate all our exporters who have helped increase the exports of Uşak, whether they receive an award or not. Our sector that contributed the most to Uşak's exports was our textile sector with 82 million dollars. While carpets worth 78 million dollars were exported from Uşak, our animal products sector exported 73 million dollars. After our first three sectors, our most exporting sectors were ready-to-wear with 48 million dollars, ceramics with 25 million dollars, leather with 23 million dollars and fruit and vegetables with 22 million dollars. Uşak increased its exports from 2022 million dollars to 25 million dollars with an increase of 129 percent in the January-May period of 162. Textile, Animal Products, Carpets, Apparel, Leather, Ceramics, Fruit and Vegetable exports are prominent sectors.” said.
35 percent of pet waste in Turkey is processed in Uşak.
Jak Eskinazi underlined that Uşak is an exemplary city at this point, that it is necessary to focus on the circular economy in order to reduce the burning effects of climate change and reduce carbon emissions in the coming years.
“The textile recycling sector in Uşak, where our association members are concentrated, has a high potential in terms of circular economy. Uşak has many manufacturers engaged in the production of regenerated yarn and is Turkey's textile recycling center with a contribution of 75 percent. In addition to textile waste, 35 percent of pet waste in Turkey is processed in Uşak. Turkey committed to zero its greenhouse gas emissions, which was 560 million tons by 2053, when it entered the Paris Climate Agreement. To achieve this goal, we must take steps to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent. The way to this is through the circular economy. In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Turkey has to make efforts to bring its 80 cities outside of Uşak to Uşak standards.”
Uşak OIZ ranks 258th among 12 active OIZs in Turkey
Halil AĞAOĞLU, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Uşak Organized Industrial Zone, said, “Textile, ceramics and food sectors stand out as the locomotive sector in our region. Our region, which is established on an area of 644 hectares, provides employment to 303 thousand people with 15 companies in operation. According to the Organized Industrial Zones Supreme Organization (OSBÜK) data, Uşak Organized Industrial Zone ranks 258th in terms of the number of companies and 12rd in terms of the number of employees among the 33 active OIZs in Turkey.
In order to meet the intense investment demands coming to our region, we have brought our 614rd Expansion Area, with a size of 3 hectares, to our province and our country, where we accelerated its work.” said.
High added value, sustainable, advanced technology products come out of Uşak OSB
Ağaoğlu continued his words as follows:
“With this project, we have increased University-Industry cooperation. There are 11 workshops and 28 offices in our TEKNOPARK building, which provides many advantages to R&D organizations. We continue our efforts to become a GREEN OIZ in order to support green transformation in the industry and to gain economic advantage. For this purpose, thanks to the environmentally friendly SOLAR SLUDGE DRYING FACILITY that we have established on an area of 14 thousand square meters, we dry 800 tons of the 350 tons of sludge coming out of our Wastewater Treatment Plant per month with solar energy. We have started working on our second Drying Facility with the same capacity.”
Uşak alone meets 72% of the Turkish Textile Recycling Industry
Halil Ağaoğlu said, “We have established the SOLID WASTE INCIDENTAL FACILITY on an area of 4 square meters in order to eliminate the textile wastes resulting from manufacturing in our region, which contributes significantly to the country's economy, and to convert the sludge from the Wastewater Treatment Plant into energy. These wastes are converted into energy by burning in our incineration plant in accordance with environmental legislation. 500 thousand Kilowatt hours of energy will be obtained monthly in our facility. The heart of the recycling industry beats in Uşak. Uşak alone meets 600% of the Turkish Textile Recycling Industry. In addition, textile, leather, plastic, aluminum and rubber are recycled in Uşak. In this way, 72 tons of raw materials per day and 2.716 thousand tons of raw materials annually are recycled, and the wastes that will cause environmental pollution are brought into the economy.” he said.
Center for blankets, textiles, leather, food, ceramics and recycling
Uşak Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairman of the Board Selim KANDEMİR mentioned that the intensive presence of the recycling sector in Uşak facilitates the adaptation to the EU Green Deal.
“We are a city in the Aegean Region that operates in many fields, especially in recycling, textile, ceramics, leather and food. In recent years, we have been drawing a constantly rising graph with the growth of the university, the increase in investments, and its young and dynamic population. in Uşak; With an annual production of approximately 10 million 400 thousand blankets, 80% of the Turkish blanket sector, 708 thousand tons of textile recycling, 72% of the textile recycling sector, 72% of the sector with the processing of 60 thousand tons of sheepskin, 55 million tons. We meet 15% of the sector with the production of square meters of wall and floor ceramics.”
Along with indirect exports, Uşak exports are around 800 million dollars.
Kandemir said, “We exported 2021 million dollars directly from our city in 368. In the first 5 months of this year, we performed 161% more than last year with 25 million dollars. If nothing goes wrong, we want to continue this performance until the end of the year. Servant; It makes most of its exports from certain sectors such as Textile and its raw materials, Aquatic products, Carpets, Ready-to-wear and apparel, leather, Ceramics and Food. We produce at least as much as our export figures from centers such as Istanbul. But exports are not recorded in our province. When we add indirect exports, we see that Uşak exports are around 750-800 million dollars.” said.
USA, Germany, China, UK main markets
Selim Kandemir, Uşak's export products, especially products in the textile and leather sector; He said that it is the raw material of sectors such as weaving, ready-made clothing, bags, accessories and furniture.
“Unfortunately, we have not developed our final product portfolio. This ensures that our export figure per kg remains around 1,58 dollars. In fact, we increased our value, which was 2020 cents in 97, by about 2 percent in 50 years. However, I think that this is not enough and this figure will increase as we turn to the final product. The countries to which our province exports the most; USA, Germany, China, UK. Previously, we had direct and indirect exports to Russia and Ukraine. However, due to the problems in the region, our exports were inevitably interrupted. There has been a 3 percent decrease in textile raw materials made from Turkey to Ukraine in the last 32 months. A significant part of this figure is direct or indirect exports from Uşak.”
A significant part of the yarns used by the ready-made clothing industry in these countries are produced in Uşak.
Kandemir said, “Besides, the decrease in exports in the ready-made sector to this region is another area that affects our province. As it is known, Turkish ready-made clothing companies have 800 stores in Russia and 200 stores in Ukraine. A significant part of the yarns used by the ready-made clothing industry in these countries are produced in Uşak. Our country's exports to Russia from the ready-made clothing industry decreased by 3% in the last 35 months. This has had a significant impact on the indirect exports of our province. Despite all the negativities, we believe that we will overcome these difficulties together.” he said.
A total of 32 million dollars support was provided to Uşak exports.
Türk Eximbank Aegean Regional Manager Gülom TİMURHAN reminded that the support they provided to exports reached 2021 billion dollars in total in 46,1, and announced that approximately 2022 billion dollars of support was provided to exports, including 5 billion dollars in cash loans and 9 billion dollars in receivables insurance in the first 11 months of 20.
“Uşak has become the province with the highest export increase in the Aegean Region, with an export of 2021 million dollars in 54 with an increase of 368 percent compared to the previous year. I congratulate the great success of our exporters from Uşak and wish them continued success. In 2021, our bank provided approximately 48 million dollars of support to Uşak exports, including 55 million dollars in cash loans and 103 million dollars in receivables insurance. As of the end of May 2022, a total of 9 million dollars support was provided to Uşak exports, including 23 million dollars of credit and 32 million dollars of receivables insurance.
Award-winning companies;
- BALTA ORIENT TEKSTİL SAN.VE TİC.A.Ş.
- GEDIK TAVUKCULUK VE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS TRADE INDUSTRY JOINT STOCK COMPANY.
- NILBATU GIDA TEKSTİL COLD STORAGES AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS INDUSTRY AND TRADE LTD. STI.
- UŞAK CERAMİK SANAYİ ANONİM ŞİRKETİ.
- HAKSA İPLİK INDUSTRY JOINT STOCK COMPANY
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