Stating that the furniture industry used to make 60 percent of its exports to Iraq and Libya, and now they accept the market as the whole world, Güleç said:
“Now, although the Iraqi and Libyan markets have decreased by almost 80 percent, our exports have not decreased. What have we done? Here we have made new countries. Today, the furniture industry in Turkey sells furniture to China. Furniture to Korea, Japan, the USA, and the UK. Today, there are France, Germany, England, the USA in the top 5. On the other hand, there are Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates. We sell furniture to 200 customs regions and there is a world mix in the top 5. For example, there is one in strong countries Vietnam. But we see that its biggest market is only the USA. So when there is a commercial dispute with the USA, the sector dies, but our Turkish furniture sector is not like that.
Pointing out that Chinese importers showed great interest in Turkish furniture in fairs abroad, Güleç said, “The Chinese came and started to buy goods from us. Because the image of Turkish furniture started to rise. We started to sell it as a brand.”
“THE NUMBER OF EXPORTERS EXPORT OVER 1 MILLION DOLLARS ARE 589”
Ahmet Güleç stated that there are 36 thousand manufacturers in the furniture sector, “10 thousand of our 36 thousand manufacturers have exported or are doing or have the potential to export in different periods. We attach great importance to them in order to ensure continuity in exports. Our number of exporters in the furniture sector exceeds 1 million dollars, It is increasing by 10 percent every year. We went from around 400 to the latest 589. It is increasing every year with the struggles we have been making for about 6-7 years.”
