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Turkey, which changed its name to the Republic of Türkiye in 2022, has a textile industry that dates to the Ottoman Empire and has continued to adapt, thrive and grow into the 21st century. In 2022, the country was ranked as the fourth largest exporter of textiles worldwide, accounting for more than 4% of global textile exports. In addition, its textiles and clothing exports have tripled since 2000, with its biggest market in Europe.
Berk Karen is the foreign sales representative for Polteks in the Bursa Kapaya industrial zone in Türkiye. Polteks initially was established in 1994 to produce rubber and polyurethane-coated rollers. Today, the company is Türkiye’s leading roller and textile machine manufacturer.
Karen believes the country’s ability to triple its exports in the last 24 years is due to multiple factors, including a conscious decision by the industry to adopt an “export-oriented growth strategy.” In addition, “technological innovations such as automation, computer-aided design [CAD] and computer-aided manufacturing [CAM] systems have contributed to the growth in this sector,”
he notes, along with making processes far more efficient.
Ross Horton, president of R. Horton Textile Machinery Sales and Services in Burlington, N.C., works with Polteks and has witnessed the strides Türkiye has made. “The Turkish textile market’s automation and their machinery have probably been the biggest drivers of their advancement because the efficiencies that they run with allow for better production,” he says.
Horton says his company has been selling textile machinery since 1995 and “by the early 2000s, we transitioned from working with European textile manufacturers to those in Türkiye” because, he says, “a lot of the European brands of tenter frames and things along those lines were being built in Türkiye. We found it worked out better working directly with a lot of these folks that were building those machines for the European manufacturers.”
Better machines allow for “fewer reworks and better results because many of [Türkiye’s] plants are constantly reinvesting in new machinery and better technology,” he adds.
Horton keeps abreast of developments by regularly visiting the country, taking U.S. customers with him and introducing them to the manufacturers as well as touring the plants. He explains that most of the plants are installing new machines every five to 10 years, so the companies are reinvesting the profits back into new equipment.
In addition, he says, they are also able to do more with fewer employees. “It’s amazing,” he says, “to see a tenter frame here in the U.S. that takes four to six people, and [Türkiye] can have one person running two machines because of the advancement in the machinery and the technology.”
Türkiye’s wise investment strategies
However, there are other careful investments that have allowed the nation to advance over the last two and half decades.
“The growing interest of foreign capital in Türkiye has led to increased investments in the textile sector and has expanded production capacities,” Karen says, while “improvements in supply chain management have enabled more effective management of raw materials and products.” This, in turn, he says, has enabled companies to save on costs.
Horton adds, “The [Turkish] government also mandates they have to put a certain amount back into their companies to continue to grow them.” The companies also must put part of the profits back into research and development.
Karen also cites fashion trends as having transformed the Turkish textile sector into what he sees as a “more flexible and responsive industry.” This is bolstered by Türkiye’s free-trade agreements and customs union arrangements, which, Karen says, “have reduced barriers to textile exports and facilitated access to new markets.”
Many of those new markets are in the European Union. “This demonstrates the sector’s strong foreign-trade network and the strategic importance of the European market,” Karen explains. However, he adds, if the country can continue to grow in other markets that it already has a foothold in—including the Middle East, Russia, America and Asia—and expand to new growth markets in Africa and Latin America, this could eventually reduce the country’s dependence on the EU.
Nonetheless, he says, while “Türkiye’s trade relations with the EU may be influenced by political and economic factors, the EU is still expected to remain a strategic trading partner.”
Horton concurs, noting, “The cost of getting everything to Europe is much less than it is from a lot of other places, like Bangladesh, India and China.” With Europe, there are fewer tariffs for Türkiye and it’s easier to transport goods, he says.
The country has, however, been impacted by the European Green Deal policy initiatives launched in December 2019, which are designed to meet climate neutrality by 2050 by tightening environmental standards and regulations.
“Turkish exporters have had to focus more on certification and documentation processes to demonstrate compliance with environmental standards,” says Karen. In addition, there is an increasing demand for sustainable and green products in the European market, which, he adds, “presents a challenge and an opportunity. [We’re] working to gain a competitive edge by investing in green technologies and adopting sustainable production practices.”
When it comes to the similarities and differences between American and Turkish textile manufacturing practices, Horton says Türkiye’s labor market is “definitely more cost-effective” because “they have the technology side that they’ve adopted from the Europeans, but they also have the Asian side that allows them to have a lower overhead on a lot of what they do. The cost of living is substantially less in Türkiye, so it allows the labor pool to be a little bit more economical.”
Karen agrees, noting that because the country’s labor costs are generally lower than the United States’ labor costs, it can support “the production of low- and mid-priced textile products” by primarily producing medium- and mid-high-quality products. As such, he says, Türkiye has “a robust foreign-trade network” and has a more flexible structure than the U.S. when it comes to the supply chain, making it “capable of quickly adjusting production.”
Facing the challenges
Türkiye faces other challenges in the industry, particularly when it comes to energy costs, which Karen says are “generally high.” The market is also subject to external international fluctuations and economic uncertainties. Horton adds that the country also has issues like those in the U.S., including competition from lower-competing markets in Bangladesh and India.
One area, though, where it has an advantage over the U.S. is when it comes to hiring employees. “Türkiye has a large labor market,” says Karen, “and the textile sector is supported by labor from rural areas. Unemployment rates are typically low, especially in major cities and regions where textile production is concentrated.”
Horton says he’s also noticed that the country is extremely family-oriented. “Most everybody that we do business with in manufacturing in Türkiye are family organizations, and even at the plants, there are families that come to work there generation after generation.” He adds there is pride in the Turkish culture “to work with your family and then to pass things down from one generation to the next.”
Nonetheless, Karen adds there are challenges in finding skilled labor for positions requiring technical expertise, which can be exacerbated by the labor cycle of seasonal jobs and fluctuating production processes. However, he admits, “these issues are not on the same level as those faced in the U.S.”
What lies ahead
Looking to the future, Karen says he sees a trend in digital advancements, not just in greater automation but also in artificial intelligence, giving the country the “potential to enhance efficiency and competitiveness and reduce costs through smarter solutions, particularly in production processes and logistics.”
He also sees a trend toward producing products with higher added value and believes there will be greater efforts when it comes to “branding, high-quality production and designs aligned with fashion trends.” And, he says, the country will work to improve the training and availability of skilled labor personnel with technical expertise.
“A workforce that is adaptable to new technologies,” he says, “and that is creative and talented, can enhance the sector’s innovation and growth potential.”
Kelly Hartog is a freelance journalist in Los Angeles, Calif.
SIDEBAR: Türkiye and textiles: The Ottoman Empire and beyond
Türkiye has made a point of building on its robust history in the industry dating back to the Ottoman Empire to maintain its position as a key player in the market.
“I love going to Türkiye just from the history side of things,” Ross Horton, president of R. Horton Textile Machinery Sales and Services, says. “It really flabbergasts me, because in the United States, people get excited about a product from the 1800s, but in Türkiye, they say, ‘This thing is from 1800 B.C.!’”
On a more practical note, Horton cites the country’s plethora of cotton farms that helped kick-start the Ottoman Empire’s textile markets and how today’s expansion has come about in part because of manufacturers setting up shop close to those cotton fields, “making everything much more economical.”
Berk Karen, foreign sales representative for Polteks, agrees. “[Our] historical experience dating back to the Ottoman Empire [together with] our technical knowledge provides an advantage in producing high-quality products and developing innovative solutions.”
Karen adds that being close to major markets coupled with the industry’s flexible production capabilities helps the industry reduce logistics costs and production times and facilitates easier exports.
With Türkiye maintaining its mission of being an “export-oriented economy,” says Karen, “the textile sector contributes to this structure and will always have significant advantages that contribute to [our country’s] strong position in the international textile industry.”