"What Turkey’s Garment and Textile Industry Needs Most", 13 March 2023

Halit Gümüser, managing director of Kipas Holdings, the parent company of Kipas Textiles, has one message to the international community: Remember Turkey...

...manufacturers in the region need more than goodwill and charity to recover, especially those who have lost their factories and are feeling unmotivated. He expects at least 10 percent of Turkey’s garment and textile exports to be redirected as a result of disruptions to production. In Kahramanmaras, a major spinning and dyeing hub where Kipas Textiles operates 25 facilities and employs 6,500 people, the devastation has been so great that most of the factories there are unlikely to restart before June. Some may not be able to pick up the pieces until the end of the year....

In the 11—formerly 10—cities that surround the tremors’ epicenters, more than 1,600 companies and nearly 1,300 textile mills, accounting for 15 percent of Turkey’s garment and textile industry, reside, said Cem Altan, president of the International Apparel Federation and a board member of both the Istanbul Apparel Exporters Association and of the Turkish Clothing Manufacturers Association.

More than half of businesses in the affected regions have been dealt some level of damage, Altan said, though a bigger issue is the 350,000 workers, comprising one-third of the entire sector’s workforce, “who have lost their lives or lost their loved ones and have still not recovered from the shock.” Infrastructure damage also continues to interfere with critical services such as communication, electricity and water.

Sheltering survivors whose homes were destroyed is perhaps the bigger hurdle to resuming production, he noted...

“Because the number of tents and container homes is limited and they take time to build, people are leaving the cities and moving to other cities where they have families,” Altan said....

Exactly how much the disaster will cost Turkey’s entire garment and textile industry is still something that’s difficult to say at this point...

Indeed, representatives from Adidas, Asos, H&M Group and Mango said they didn’t anticipate any production hiccups. A spokesperson from C&A, which sources 8 to 12 percent of its annual demand from Turkey, said that the impact has been more from a “people and capacity” perspective.

“With this in mind, we have taken a flexible approach with them and where product would not meet the required delivery dates due to seasonality, we are working with them on re-designing the styles to ensure that this remains commercially relevant,” the Belgium and Germany-based retailer said. It’s also offering suppliers expedited payments on any outstanding invoices, and supporting them by obtaining any required raw materials from its global supply network until they can reestablish their own...

“There are people who sleep in factories, who take their children, their animals to work because they lost everything or they are in fear of going back to their houses,” said Pinar Özcan, a representative for one of IndustriALL Global Union’s affiliates in Turkey. “Most houses are damaged and need to be rebuilt. Some lost their kids, some lost their mothers, some lost relatives and close friends. They are still learning to live with this wound. For sure, wounds will heal with time but it will be so harsh.”...

“The good news is the partners who have been working with Türkiye for a long time have told me that they will not leave Turkiye because of this disaster,” said Altan, using the official name for Turkey. “They allowed factories to carry on the orders who are late for delivering the goods because of earthquake or transport problems.”...

“We need business from our partners,” Altan added. “This is the biggest help they can give to us.”