“I think we are probably one of the six or seven suede manufacturers in Türkiye.”
As Magazine Leather publishing, we are together with Mr. Erdal from TURCO LEATHER among Turkish companies at APLF Fair.
Mr. Erdal, we would like to get brief information about TURCO leather.
Turco leather was established 8 years ago with my partner. We supply raw leather from Sudan. We rented a factory in Sudan and we produce leather for clothing and shoes after we process the goods in Sudan into semi-finished products and bring the clean goods from there to Turkey at a rate of 20 to 25 percent and finalize them.
Sudan is problematic this year, we have not been able to go there for 8-9 months and we could not understand what happened, hopefully the problems there will end and we will return to our factory and continue our production in a healthy way. We have stocks for now, but the world wars create a big problem for trade and we hope that we will all go to peace and we will continue our business.
What kind of expectations did you have at the APLF Fair and what kind of expectations did you encounter?
Now, we had participated twice before Corona, this year we are participating for the third time for the first time after Corona. Hong Kong has a very big place in my 35 years of working life in the leather industry, it is the gateway to Asia. There are many people from all over the world, especially from Asian countries. Again, I think it serves with a wide angle. Also, the fact that this place is visa-free is a plus for people from every country to enter and exit easily. Especially countries like China, India, Korea and Japan are in high demand here. Our customer density is already here, especially Korea and Japan, including India. Therefore, we are happy that this place has been opened, but unfortunately the world wars continue in the Middle East, Africa and Russia, hopefully they will end and the leather sector will gain its former momentum and we will be happy.
Then we can say that you leave APLF in a more meaningful way…
Yes, exactly, I think the fair was good, of course, if you have commodity products, there are few people on the first day and more visitors on the second and third day. Participation was low compared to other fairs. I’ve been to previous fairs 20 years ago and I’ve been here every year, of course it’s small, but I think it will be fruitful.
I think that if there are six or seven suede manufacturers in Turkey, we are probably one of them, because commodity is very important. Because commodity is very important, in Africa, we call metis leather, which is a very clean leather between goat and sheep. We bring them as a product and we print them with the new print machine we just bought. We use embossing and dyeing technique and print dyeing technique. We also bought the machine recently.
![](https://www.magazineleather.com/wp-content/uploads/Turco-Leather-Embossing-and-painting-technique-and-print-painting-technique-1024x936.jpg)
Now technology is so advanced that it is also reflected in the leather industry…
These products are leathers produced for the models that the new generation of young people like, not plain, but shaped on the leather. These are for clothes and jacket style models also look good. We can say that this kind of leather is now in vogue. These suede leathers are generally preferred in far eastern countries, especially in countries such as Korea and Japan. Because it is more preferred because its grip is like silk.
Yes, the grip is also very comfortable. You know, in leatherworking, the grip is important and you cannot perceive the leather without touching it.
APLF fair was a good market for you, thank you for your participation in Magazine Leather publications.
We thank you for coming here and wish you good publications.