Aegean Leather and Leather Products Exporters’ Association organized a sectoral trade delegation organization with 19 Turkish companies for shoes, bags and accessories, leather apparel sectors on 3-5 October 2022 in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Within the scope of the delegation, he signed a cooperation protocol with Caspian University for the development of mutual projects.
In 2021, Turkey’s overall leather and leather products exports increased by 29% and reached 1 billion 726 million dollars. As a continuation of its activities in the Turkish leather industry, it also signed a cooperation protocol with Caspian University in Kazakhstan for the development of mutual projects.
Explaining that they have focused on the Kazakhstan market for the last year, Aegean Leather and Leather Products Exporters’ Association President Erkan Zandar said, “We organized an inspection delegation to Kazakhstan in October 2021 and at the end of one year of preparations, we realized our sectoral trade delegation. Kazakhstan is a country that draws attention with its increasing trade volume and strong economy. The brand value of Turkish export products in the region is quite high. At the same time, our strong cultural cooperation reflects positively on our trade between the two countries. During three days, 19 companies held bilateral business meetings with 256 buyer Kazakh company representatives. We completed our Kazakhstan Sectoral Trade Delegation Organization with high participation and new commercial connections.” said.
Opening Turkish classrooms, establishing a Fashion Design faculty and internship opportunities for Kazakh students who speak Turkish.
Explaining that in 2021, Turkey’s overall leather and leather products exports increased by 29% and reached 1 billion 726 million dollars, Zandar continued her words as follows:
“In 2021, we exported 43 million dollars of leather and leather products to Kazakhstan with an increase of 113 percent. In the 9-month period of 2022, we exported 22 million dollars of leather and leather products to Kazakhstan. From 2019 to the end of 2021, our exports of leather and leather products to Kazakhstan increased by 1000 percent. In September 2022, Kazakhstan, especially in leather apparel, ranks 9th in overall exports in Turkey. Kazakhstan is our sister country, we have deep historical ties. We aim to further strengthen these deep-rooted relations between the two countries with the cooperation of academia and industry. Therefore, as part of the delegation, we signed a cooperation protocol with Caspian University, one of the best universities in Kazakhstan, for the development of mutual projects. We have put on our agenda the opening of Turkish classrooms, the establishment of a Fashion Design faculty within the university, and the provision of internship opportunities for Kazakh students who speak Turkish. We will soon meet with Dokuz Eylül University and University of Economics for content.”
Turkish leather industry will develop joint collections with Kazakh designers
Erkan Zandar said, “We are planning to hold more events in Kazakhstan with our different sectors in the coming period. Our country has a serious history in leather products. As in the fashion sector, we also have successful works in design. In addition to cooperating with Kazakh companies, as the Turkish leather industry, we want to develop joint collections with Kazakh designers. After our successful purchasing delegation, we determined Kazakhstan as the new target market. We started preparations for a new sectoral trade delegation organization on 1-3 March 2023 with the participation of more of our companies.” said.
Our Almaty Consul General Ali Rıza Akıncı, Azerbaijan Almaty Consul General Anar Huseyinzade, our Commercial Attachés Sıddık Kaya and Ekrem Alper Bozkurt, and our Education Attaché Mahmut Ağırman attended the delegation opening ceremony and university protocol signing ceremony.
Leather and leather products exports exceeded 1.5 billion dollars
In the January-September period of 2022, our exports of leather and leather products in Turkey reached 1 billion 534 million dollars with an acceleration of 21 percent. Our shoe exports increased by 19 percent to 915 million dollars, leather saddlery increased by 35 percent to 228 million dollars, leather hides increased by 15 percent to 221 million dollars, leather and fur clothing increased by 19 percent to 168 million dollars.
Exporting to 104 countries and regions in the Aegean Region in 9 months, we reached 149 million dollars with an increase of 22%. In the January-September period of 2022, our shoe exports increased by 36 percent to 91 million dollars, Germany with 12 million dollars, France with 5 million dollars in our leather apparel exports with an increase of 15 percent, 20 million dollars, Portugal and India with 3 million dollars in our 18 million dollars leather hide exports, 18 with an increase of 41 percent. The Netherlands stands out with an increase of 87 percent and 5 million dollars in our leather saddlery exports.
The top 5 countries in our leather and leather products export in the Aegean Region; Germany with an increase of 6 percent to 20 million dollars, the Netherlands an increase of 32 percent to 13 million dollars, the United Kingdom 32 percent and the USA to 11 million dollars with an increase of 13 percent, and Italy to 10 million dollars with an increase of 64 percent.
