Turkey is an important producer of both Denim fabrics as well as denim garments. With over $2 billion of denim jeans exports (out of a total of about $5 billion + textile exports)and over 200 million mtrs of denim exports, denim is very important part of Turkish Textile Industry.
Lets analyze below, how the exports of Turkish Denim Fabrics to USA have fared over a period of almost 9 years from 2001 to 2009. It would be clear to most before even looking at the figures , that the exports of denim fabrics would have fallen since US imports of denim fabrics have continously seen a fall and US produces mainly premium denim jeans only . The cheaper jeans are sourced from around the world.
Exports of Turkish Denim Fabrics to
USA 2000-2010
| Year | Denim fabric Exports (million square meters) | Denim Fabric Exports (mn linear mtrs) |
| 2001 | 136.55 | 85.34 |
| 2002 | 159.68 | 99.80 |
| 2003 | 95.87 | 59.92 |
| 2004 | 88.25 | 55.16 |
| 2005 | 58.29 | 36.43 |
| 2006 | 44.56 | 27.84 |
| 2007 | 45.96 | 28.72 |
| 2008 | 40.94 | 25.58 |
| 2009(Jan to July) | 19.22 | 12.01 |
Source:US Dept of commerce
We can see that the exports of the denim fabrics to US from Turkey have fallen almost 70% . This goes on to show that fabrics is not what US market is interested in . It wants mainly garments. Also even Turkey is not interested in exporting fabrics. They want to export jeans and that’s what they are successful at.
Lets also see some figures of exports of denim garments . It would be interesting to see how the figures have jumped in this case .These figures are the total exports of Turkey to all markets and not only US.
Turkish Exports of Denim Jeans
| Year | Denim Jeans Exports (pieces) | Value |
Average Price Per Jeans Exported |
| 2000 | 53.3 million | $ 409 million | $7.67 |
| 2001 | 67.2 million | $571 million | $8.49 |
| 2002 | 105.18 | $885 million | $8.42 |
| 2003 | 108.36 | $1 billion | $9.22 |
| 2004 | 131.29 | $1.51 billion | $11.50 |
| 2005 | 147.71 | $1.93 billion | $13.06 |
| 2006 | 148.46 | $1.86 billion | $12.52 |
| 2007 | 168.8 | $ 2.1 billion | $12.44 |
| 2008(Jan-May) | 43.38 | $756 million | $17.42 |
| %change from 2000 to 2007 |
+216% | +413% | +62% |
Source:Turkish Customs
All the more interesting is to see that the price of denim jeans exported from Turkey has been continously rising and that too on the back of a highly increased turnover. This clearly shows that Turkey has moved up the value chain and has been continously producing more high value added garments and leaving the basic ones. But this may also not portend well for some garment buyers as they have started to find Turkey quite expensive. But all in all, the buyer is happy if he is getting value for money . Isn’t it ?
