Competing with the giants of textile such as China and India who have large amounts of cheap labor and instruments, Turkish textile and apparel sector has many drawbacks such as expensive energy, high labor costs and taxes. On the other hand, it is advantageous for Turkey to be close to European, Asian and African markets geographically, to supply in the required amount and on time with high quality and flexible production. 3rd preferred country by the EU countries in textile and apparel, Turkey is 7th in cotton production and 4th in cotton consumption. In the near term, solution expectations for cotton sector are frequently expressed by the yarn sector. Turkey has an active position in the global market as the 5th in the production of fiber ring spinning, and the 4th in open-end yarn production.
The sector used to achieve high profits and transfer the profits to other sectors in the past. Now, the sector got rid of this habit and turned to the modernization of the textile industry machinery and technology. This creates a positive outlook for the internal dynamics of the Turkish textile sector. In addition to the skilled labor, technological investments are made more consciously and long term compared to the past, which is considered to be an improvement in the sector. It is described as an important step that new regions are evolving in this field beside the traditional textile centers. According to data from the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, in June of 2011, the textile industry capacity utilization rate was 75.9 per cent, increasing to 79.2 per cent in June 2012. Annual increase is reported to be 4.3 percent.
However, it is a serious handicap that the textile industry does not have its own stimulus package and the sector is not considered to be in 'Strategic Industries'. Standard incentives that have been practiced since the 1960s, impede the efforts of innovation and growth in the sector today. This situation is clearly visible from the decreases in applications for investment. On the other hand, within the incentives, the practice of incentive advantages by dividing the country into several regions does not provide the solution that the textile and apparel sector requests.
It is always put into words by the representatives of the sector that the sector must be supported in order to switch from multi-volume and basic production to the high value-added textile production. Global developments especially in the field of technical textiles reveal that there will be larger losses if the sector remains still in this field. In order to achieve the export target of USD 20 billion in the textile sector and USD 52 billion in the apparel sector in 2023 put forward by the Government, a long and difficult road is still waiting for us.
