After the deepening of the global climate crisis, the European Union Green Deal, which was implemented by the European Union in 2019, has become the priority homework of all sectors.
Aegean Textile and Raw Materials Exporters Association (ETHIB), which is one of the institutions that took the first and most important steps regarding sustainability in Turkey, has determined its main agenda as sustainability and shapes its projects within this framework.
Speaking at the 2023 Ordinary General Assembly Meeting held at ETHİB's Aegean Exporters' Associations (EİB) Conference Hall, EİB Coordinator President and ETHİB Chairman of the Board of Directors Jak Eskinazi said; He underlined that in this period when it becomes difficult to compete due to loss of parity, stagnant demand, increase in inflation and increasing costs, the Association continues to plan its activities in a way that emphasizes sustainability, digitalization, quality and value-added production.
AEGEAN TEXTILES INCREASED THEIR EXPORTS BY 41 PERCENT
Evaluating the export performance of the sector in 2023, Eskinazi said, "The devastating earthquake on February 6, 2023, which deeply affected our 11 provinces, caused significant difficulties in the supply chain in the first stage because it covered the provinces with great potential in textile raw material production and trade, and the continuing contraction in demand in our main markets also had a negative impact." He said that it increased and the effects of this were felt in textile and ready-made clothing exports throughout Turkey.
Eskinazi said, “Our ETHİB 2023 exports differed from the rest of Türkiye and experienced a significant export increase. Exports from our Union in 2023 increased by 41% compared to the previous year, reaching approximately 509 million dollars, especially due to the increase in raw material exports. "Our country's total textile exports decreased by 2023% in 7,6, reaching 9,5 billion dollars." he said.
Providing information about the activities of the Sustainability URGE Project, carried out with the support of the Ministry of Commerce, Eskinazi said, "With this project, in which we aim to increase the competitiveness of our companies in our foreign markets, we provide consultancy services to the participants on energy efficiency, ISO 14064 Corporate Carbon Footprint Management, ISO 14001 Environmental Management and Product Life Cycle Assessment. We made sure he got it. "We will make an inspection visit to the Netherlands next September to see good practice examples in the sector," he said.
