Leather Sector Export Stars Receive Their Awards

The leather sector focused on halting the 18% export decline experienced in 2024 by concentrating on productivity and value-added manufacturing to emerge from the crisis. The sector aims to reverse the negative export trend through URGE Projects to be implemented in subsectors.

Erkan Zandar, Chairman of the Aegean Leather and Leather Products Exporters Association, stated that they decided to implement the "Leather and Leather Products Sector Medium-Term Program" with the participation of all civil society organizations in the leather sector to increase value-added production.

Speaking at the financial general assembly meeting held at the Aegean Exporters Associations, Zandar said, "Looking at our export figures for the first quarter of 2025 in the leather and leather products sector, we have achieved export increases in the saddlery and leather apparel sectors where labor costs on the product have decreased and value-added has increased. Our saddlery sector exports rose by 14% from USD 55.8 million to USD 63.8 million. Our leather apparel exports advanced by 47.4% from USD 24 million to USD 35.7 million. These figures show that Turkey continues to export value-added leather products. Our first priority for steering the sector toward value-added products will be inventory management. Second, we will increase production efficiency, and at the final stage we will raise the value-added in our production."

Recalling that in the 7 years since becoming union chairman in 2018 the world has experienced pandemic, war, global recession in the economy, and bottlenecks in the Turkish economy, Chairman Zandar continued: "While we had around 650 exporting companies in the Aegean Region, today we are below 300. From 2023 to 2025, we lost one-third of the sector's exports. Our low value-added chrome leather exports suffered greatly. As value-added decreases, we become expensive and customers move away from us. We need to make changes in our production. If we can add value to products as we do with saddlery and leather apparel products, we can sell goods. If you ask whether our future is open or can it be opened, the answer is yes. In 2025 we will try to open our future with the 'Leather and Leather Products Sector Medium-Term Program'. We invite all companies in the sector to join this initiative."

Sharing that Turkey achieved a 32% increase in leather and leather products exports to the US in the first quarter of 2025, Zandar said, "The saddlery and leather apparel sectors underpin this success. We can emerge from this crisis by solving inventory management and increasing production efficiency. We cannot wait for exchange rate increases. According to the report coming from China, we will cluster subsectors in URGE Projects, and by producing efficiently and integrating technology into production we will find the way out. We need major cooperation in the leather sector. We finished a difficult year and did not enter an easy one."

Trade mission to Saudi Arabia
Expressing that despite Turkey having a free trade agreement with the UK, they lost market share in UK exports because they could not maintain prices, Zandar noted that they conducted a successful trade mission to Saudi Arabia in 2024, decided in 2025 to organize a trade mission covering footwear, saddlery, and apparel sectors on 5-9 October 2025, and planned two days of bilateral business meetings in Riyadh and Jeddah.

At the 2024 annual financial general assembly meeting of the Aegean Leather and Leather Products Exporters Association, the 2025 budget and work program were unanimously approved, while the EDMIB Board of Directors and Supervisory Board were unanimously acquitted for their 2024 activities.

Awards given to 31 export stars
The Aegean Leather and Leather Products Exporters Association held an "Export Stars Awards Ceremony" for its 31 members who accounted for USD 103 million of exports, representing 62% of the USD 165 million in total exports achieved in 2024.

In 2024, besides the top three exporting companies among Aegean Leather and Leather Products Exporters Association members, 3 companies qualified for the gold category, 5 for silver, and 20 for bronze.