Over the past three years, Türkiye’s textile and apparel sector has been grappling with a severe financial crisis. Since 2022, nearly 10 thousand companies have shut down, resulting in a 27.5% loss in employment. Responding to questions after the TBMM Parliamentary Planning and Budget Committee sessions, Minister Bolat made several statements regarding the textile and apparel sector, one of the country’s largest industrial branches.
Addressing criticism that “investments in textile and apparel have shifted to neighboring countries,” Bolat noted that last year 310 investors established companies in Egypt, 155 of whom were Syrian nationals who moved there mainly to maintain business ties with their home country. He said the total value of these investments was 40 million dollars, adding, “As a government, we will never turn our backs on the textile industry. We are a cotton-producing nation; we learned exports through textiles and apparel.”
Responding to claims that Türk Eximbank’s capital is insufficient, Bolat stated that the bank’s paid-in capital had been raised to 88 billion liras, marking nearly a sevenfold increase over two and a half years. He added that exporters had been provided with 53 billion dollars in rediscount loans this year and that the daily rediscount loan volume had been increased to 4.5 billion dollars.
He pointed out that 600 thousand SMEs are working with e-commerce companies and that the volume of e-exports reached 6.4 billion dollars last year. He also noted that, to protect small businesses and SMEs, the tax exemption threshold for e-imports had been reduced from 150 dollars to 30 dollars. Additionally, he reminded that import restrictions had been introduced for leather goods, toys, and products deemed harmful to health.
Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacır also stated, “It is out of the question for us to abandon any sector. We did not attain these industries easily as a nation. They have reached their current strength through decades of effort and hard work. Today, in apparel and textiles, Türkiye remains one of the world’s leading producers. Nearly one million of our citizens are employed in these industries. Therefore, it is inconceivable for us to turn our backs on them.”
“While employment declines in Marmara and the Aegean, it is rising in the East and Southeast”
Minister Kacır highlighted that, although the textile sector has seen employment losses in the Marmara and Aegean regions, job creation has increased in provinces such as Batman, Bingöl, Mardin, Siirt, and Şırnak, where incentives have been provided under development programs for Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia.
Kacır stated that the 2,500-lira employment support program initiated for workers in the apparel, textile, leather, and furniture sectors would be expanded. “As of 2026, we are considering further scaling up this support. Once the relevant bill is approved by the General Assembly, we will extend these incentives to include larger-scale firms in these sectors,” he said.
“100 thousand people will lose their jobs”
According to a report by Müslüm Evci of Sözcü, CHP deputy from Denizli Şeref Arpacı drew attention to the ongoing job losses in the textile sector during the commission meetings, warning that another 100 thousand people would soon become unemployed. A textile manufacturer himself, Arpacı said that the opportunity during the pandemic had been missed and that public resources were mismanaged. He argued that industrialists were losing markets due to high costs and exchange rate pressures, while limited access to financing and intermediate goods had pushed production and employment to the brink of collapse.
Evci recalled that in December 2022, there were approximately 71,959 companies operating in the textile, apparel, and leather sectors, compared to around 62,000 today. He said, “December 2022 — the months when the so-called ‘nas’ policies began — were when we couldn’t export enough and our biggest problem was capacity shortage. Back then, employment stood at 1,304,927; today it is 944,000. That means 360,757 jobs lost — a 27.5% decline in just three years.”
“We lost our market; they reached larger ones”
Commenting on the ministry’s presentation that the 2,500-lira incentive would create 22,000 new jobs, Evci emphasized that total industrial employment had declined by 560,000 over the past three years. He continued: “At that time, Türkiye was the world’s sixth-largest exporter, accounting for 3.7% of the global market. Today, in exports to the European Union, we’ve lost 6.5% in value and 3.3% in volume over the last two years. Meanwhile, our Far Eastern competitors have increased their exports to the EU by 4.3% in value and 13.2% in volume — around a 10% overall increase. So, this decline isn’t about ‘global demand shrinking’ or ‘foreign conspiracies.’ Europe simply stopped buying from us and bought from elsewhere. We lost our market, and they gained larger ones. In the apparel and garment sector alone, exports fell from 17.873 billion dollars in January–October 2022 to 12.712 billion dollars in January–September 2025 — a 30% drop in just three years.”
Speaking on behalf of the CHP Group, Prof. Dr. Ümit Özlale said, “The textile, apparel, and furniture industries cannot be kept afloat merely through employment protection programs. What is needed here is a comprehensive transformation.”