Aiming to expand its textile exports to the US, the Turkish textile industry drew attention with rising growth rates in the US in the first two months of the year, both across product groups and in overall textile exports. According to the January–February 2026 Export Performance Report published by İTHİB, Türkiye’s total textile and apparel exports decreased by 4.4% compared to the same period of the previous year, reaching a value of $4.1 billion. During this period, apparel and garment exports declined by 3.3% to $2.3 billion, while textile and raw materials exports fell by 5.8% to $1.8 billion.
Exports to European Union (EU) countries, the largest market for the Turkish textile industry, decreased by 4% in this period, reaching a value of $748.2 million, while the strongest increase was recorded in the American countries. In the region, exports reached $153.7 million with a 9.7% increase in value terms, while a 15% increase was recorded in volume terms.
Following EU countries, Türkiye’s top textile export markets in value terms were, respectively, African countries, the former Eastern Bloc, Middle Eastern countries, American countries, Asia and Oceania, other European countries, and the Turkic Republics.
Exports to the US increased by 23% compared to last February
Among the countries with the highest textile exports in the January–February 2026 period, Italy stood out with $147 million. Italy, where export value remained stable compared to the previous period, was followed by the US with a 9% increase and exports totaling $123 million. Germany ranked third with a 3.4% decline and exports of $112 million.
In this period, the largest decline in Turkish textile exports was recorded in Belarus, while the highest increase was observed in Morocco with 16.2%. On a monthly basis, compared to February 2025, the country with the highest increase was the US, with a rate of 23.3%.
Exports decline across all product groups from woven fabrics to yarn
A downward trend was observed across all product groups in the first two months of the year. During this period, woven fabrics—the most exported product group—recorded a 0.7% decline, followed by technical textiles with 3.5%, yarn with 7.6%, home textiles with 3.7%, and knitted fabrics with 7.9%. The largest decrease was seen in fibers, which ranked next. Export value in fibers decreased by 15.7% during this period. The list was completed by apparel sub-industry products with a 2.7% decline.
The top three countries for woven fabric exports were Spain, Italy, and Morocco, respectively. In technical textiles, the US, Italy, and Germany ranked at the top of the list. Italy, Egypt, and Portugal were the leading countries for yarn exports during this period.
In the same period, it was observed that the US was the leading export destination in all three top product groups. Compared to the same period of the previous year, exports to the US increased by 33.6% in woven fabrics, 10.5% in technical textiles, and 30.7% in yarn during the January–February period.
An analysis of the change in the production index over the last 12 months (October–December) shows a sharp decline in apparel. The index, which stood at 11.2% in October, dropped to -29.2% by December. In textiles, although the gap is narrower, the production index, which hovered around -8% in recent months, was recorded at -9.8%.
Looking at capacity utilization rates over the one-year period up to February 2026, a decrease of 0.3% was observed in apparel and 3.1% in the textile industry.