Turkey has been gaining in strength in terms of its denim industry over the last 5 years. It has replaced some Asian countries in terms of its importance for this product for EU.
Turkey has not only created a big denim production base, but it has become an important Conversion base – where denim is imported from EU for conversion into garments which are re-exported. Some of these garments also find their way into the local market which is quality concious and fashion oriented..
What is most surprising is that if we see the figures of Exports from Denim into EU and Imports of Denim into Turkey from EU, we will find that the cumulative figure of Denim Imports into Turkey exceeds that of exports from Turkey!. However, if we only see the year 2005 , we will find that exports from Turkey have increased substantially, indicating that the increase in production base and lowered prices were helping it to export more to the EU.
Another surprising point to note is that the average prices of importsof denim into EU from Turkey have been higher that of exports to Turkey from EU. The reason for the same is a lot of seconds fabrics from EU gets imported into Turkey and that reduces the average prices.Secondly, lot of denim from Asian countries finds its way into EU and through EU into Turkey(because of certain limitations of imports directly into EU).The prices of this fabric is generally much lower. This also reduces the average prices of fabrics going to Turkey from EU. Seethe interesting figures below:
| Imports of | Denim from | Turkey in EU25 | |||
| Year | Kgs | Amount(Euro) | Linear Mtrs | Av.Price(Euro/kg) | Av.Price(Euro/Mtr) |
| 2000 | 9705800 | 64452320 | 13865429 | 6.64 | 4.65 |
| 2001 | 15894700 | 110765207 | 22706714 | 6.97 | 4.88 |
| 2002 | 12557500 | 96453733 | 17939286 | 7.68 | 5.38 |
| 2003 | 11677200 | 75792432 | 17964923 | 6.49 | 4.22 |
| 2004 | 17753500 | 109013704 | 27313077 | 6.14 | 3.99 |
| 2005 | 17513800 | 105435532 | 26944308 | 6.02 | 3.91 |
| 126733736 | |||||
| Total Imp. | from Turkey = | Approx 126 | million mtrs | ||
| Exports | to Turkey | from EU25 | |||
| Year | Kgs | Amount(Euro) | Linear Mtrs | Av.Price(Euro/kg) | Av.Price(Euro/Mtr) |
| 2000 | 11664800 | 63751723 | 16664000 | 5.47 | 3.83 |
| 2001 | 15640700 | 97620439 | 22343857 | 6.24 | 4.37 |
| 2002 | 24634000 | 145474562 | 35191429 | 5.91 | 4.13 |
| 2003 | 17356400 | 86188188 | 26702154 | 4.97 | 3.23 |
| 2004 | 18482600 | 89748643 | 28434769 | 4.86 | 3.16 |
| 2005 | 10240900 | 58456436 | 15755231 | 5.71 | 3.71 |
| Total Exp. | to Turkey = | Approx. | 145 million mtrs |
Source:Eurostat
And as we have seen before in the case of exports from India and Pakistan, the year 2001 was the best year for exports of denim to EU. Year 2005 has shown some improvements , but the average prices are nowhere near the prices that existed at that time.
