China and India vying to replace Turkish textile sales to Russia

A press conference was held by Hikmet Eraslan, CEO of Dosso Dossi Holding to kick off the biannual Dosso Dossi Fashion Show in the resort city of Antalya. Speaking at the press conference, Erasland said that textile firms from China, India, Italy and others to boost its presence in the Russian marketing have starting meeting business delegations in Russia in a bid to utilize the absence of Turks in the market, following the jet crisis, wherein Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet over an airspace violation along its Syrian border on Nov. 24, an unexpected development that has prompted Moscow to introduce a number of economic sanctions against Turkey in retaliation.

The Dosso Dossi fair, where manufacturers and thousands of client firms from different countries meet as the fair serves as an intermediary platform in supply chains where the products end up in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan or elsewhere. The fair is held in the industry to support the opening of new markets, domestically and sector heads from abroad , bureaucrats, businessmen, academicians, bringing the industry to create an international platform to shed light on the development, sales and bilateral negotiations for partnerships and organizations performing organization is to make both participants and visitors in terms of the most efficient.

At the previous fair [in June] they made $55 million in revenue, due to the jet crisis aim to reach around $50 million this time as Russian firms attending have dropped from 1,500 to between 1,000 and 1,100 when compared to the previous fair. Eraslan said that the holding received calls from several participants who wanted to inform them that they would not be in attendance at the fair.

The press conference was also attended by two textile producers who have been working with Dosso Dossi for years: Talat Kümek, an employer of 200 workers, and Behçet Kaya, with between some 300 employees, who both said they had to mark down the selling price of their products.

Eraslan said that they do not believe that the coming period will be fruitful, underlining that small firms will see bleaker results if the crisis lingers on.
Owners of textile shops in Ä°stanbul’s Laleli district also told Sunday’s Zaman earlier this month that they had to knock down their prices in order to recoup losses amid the rising bargaining power of their customers.

Since Russia still maintains its grip over former soviet countries, embargoes aimed at Turkey are expected to spread to such countries as well. Belarus has already followed suit and banned chartered flights to Turkey, also restricting the access of some Turkish products.

When asked if Turkish textile producers could diversify their export partners, Eraslan underlined that the main collections of Turkish sellers are designed for Russian consumers, who have been loyal customers to Turkey for years. There is a Russian perception that Turkish products are of higher quality. The opportunity that this opinion gives might now be missed following the jet crisis.

Having officially banned many fruit and vegetable imports from Turkey, the sanctions also included tightened custom checks on textile products, which have resulted in Turkish trucks lining up along the Russian border, unpaid invoices and the cancellation of orders. The textile sector also expects a direct ban effective Jan. 1 if there are no signs of easing the spat.

According to official statistics, Turkey’s ready-to-wear textile exports have already slid by 10.3 percent year on year in the first 11 months of 2015, totaling $15.6 billion. The jet crisis, meanwhile, came amid the downturn in foreign sales. The total volume of Turkish exports dropped by 8.6 percent to stand at $132 billion between January and November, compared to the same period a year ago.