The Turkish leather sector has decided to implement the “Leather and Leather Goods Sector Medium Term Program” under the coordination of the Aegean Leather and Leather Products Exporters’ Association in order to stop the downward trend in exports. The sector aims to get out of the crisis by strengthening relations with China and increasing its productivity.
While Türkiye’s Medium Term Program (MTP), which was implemented to reduce inflation to single digits, brought about blood loss in labor-intensive sectors, the Turkish leather industry was one of the most affected sectors. The leather sector, whose exports of 1 billion 858 million dollars in 2023 fell to 1 billion 526 million dollars in 2024, recorded an 18 percent loss in Türkiye’s overall exports. The Turkish leather sector aims to overcome this crisis by increasing productivity and focusing on value-added products.
MTP will determine the sector’s roadmap
Erkan Zandar, President of the Aegean Leather and Leather Products Exporters’ Association, said that the program, which they have prepared for the medium-term development of the leather and leather products sector, will provide guidance to companies by setting a road map on inventory management, production efficiency and access to finance with projects covering sub-sectors, and that it includes the main challenges faced by the sector and solutions for them.
“We aim to increase the competitiveness of the sector by increasing efficiency,” he said and added: ”We have a plan to integrate the best practices in China into our own business models. We conducted a comprehensive review in China. We had factory visits in Xiantao and Xiamen cities and contacts with sectoral organizations. In the meantime, we are working hard to organize the participation of our sector representatives in the China International Import Expo, on November 5-10, 2025.”
He informed that on June 20, 2025, with the participation of Chinese Ambassador to Ankara Jıang Xuebin and CIIE fair administration officials, they will hold a promotional launch of the expo for the companies at the EİB service building.
Gündoğlu: China is the right market to both sell goods and learn lessons
Halil Gündoğdu, Vice President of the Aegean Leather and Leather Products Exporters’ Association, emphasized that China is not only a huge market for export products, but also has vast know-how on production technologies and efficiency that should be transferred to Türkiye. Within the scope of their visit to China last week, he underlined that performance measurement and taking China’s standardized way of working as an example are important in increasing efficiency, sample diversity and cost/stock management in the sectors.
China International Import Expo is the key to enter the Chinese market
Halil Gündoğdu said that the China International Import Expo (CIIE), to be held in Shanghai, China on November 5-10, 2025, whose national participation organization will be carried out by the Aegean Exporters’ Associations, has great potential especially for the leather craft sector, “Just as the Canton Fair is a fair where China exhibits the products it wants to sell to the world, CIIE is a fair where it says to all countries, bring me the products you want to sell and exhibit them here. China’s exporter identity stands out, but China imported 2 trillion 590 billion dollars in 2024. Therefore, this fair is a real key for our companies that want to enter the Chinese market, recognize and show themselves.”