Turkey is known as Europe's largest textile manufacturing and supplying hub. Many of the ma-jor textile brands such as S Oliver, Adidas, Nike Esprit, H&M, Hugo Boss, and Zara source their clothing from Turkey. These textile exports have propelled Turkey to become the fourth largest clothing manufacturer in the world and number one in Europe. The exports of Turkish textile and clothing goods have been on the rise in the recent years, however, its share in the country's total exports is decreasing. In 2014, textiles exports rose 6.3 per cent to US$18.4 billion.

With the removal of international trade barriers for China, Turkish textile sector started losing its labour cost advantage and in order to maintain its competitiveness, producers moved to-ward new designs, fashions and quality labels, targeting higher income clients. European Un-ion’s FTAs with supplying countries, like India and South Korea, also affected the domestic textile industry.

Cotton is the essential raw material for the Turkey’s textile and clothing industry, and Turkey is one of the important cotton growers in the world ranking eighth in the production of cotton. As one of the results of the South eastern Anatolia Project (GAP), which is the largest project ever attempted in Turkey, cotton production in Turkey has begun to increase. Due to the availability of huge amounts of raw cotton in Turkey, the cotton textile industry has progressed like the Turkish cotton yarns industry. Turkey is one of the largest countries in the world in terms of its cotton yarn production capacity. Similarly, the Turkish man-made textile sector is also well-developed industry with very strong presence in all kinds of synthetic fibers and yarns production and processing.

In overall exports, Turkey is net exporter in 10 sectors with apparel sector constituting nearly 30 percent of the net exports while textile has a share of nearly 23 percent. Thus, these two sub-sectors that are complementing each other have a share of 53 percent in net exports.

Of late, Turkey’s yarn imports from India have been sluggish and have started declining since January 2015. India exported just US$12 million worth of spun yarns in March 2015, down 46 per cent year on year with volumes at 4.35 million kg. Between September to December, the volumes of export to Turkey hovered above 5 million kg a month which fell to just over 4 million kg in January. It was almost stagnant in February.

However, Turkey remains dominant buyer of polyester/viscose and polyester/wool yarns, topping the list while ranked as third largest market for polyester/cotton, 100% polyester and polyester/acrylic yarns. It was fifth largest buyers of Indian viscose yarn and ranked as 11th largest market for cotton yarn. In March 2015, only polyester/viscose spun yarn registered increase in export to Turkey while all other types of yarns were significantly lower than last year.

Courtesy: Fibre and Yarn Exports - India Report, April 2015