Turkey is the world's fourth-largest denim exporter with a 2% share in the denim fabric exports, worth $338 million, and a 7% share in denim clothing exports worth $2.1 billion, according to the Uludağ Textile Exporters' Association (UTİB).

According to a UTİB statement, the association participated in the Denim Premiere Vision Milan, a two-day fashion and cultural denim event held in Italy.

UTİB Chair Pınar Taşdelen Engin noted that Turkey became the fourth biggest supplier in the international denim market with the investments made in the 1980s and subsequent projects. She added that they lent support to each year to increase the power of the companies in this market. "We took our place among the most participating countries with 27 companies," she said. "At our UTİB booth, we carried out all kinds of projects to meet the needs of our companies. In addition, we published a catalog to provide information on Turkish companies participating in the event and distributed them to the visitors."

Referring to the rapid rise in textiles, Engin said this was due to the Turkish firms' success in the production, marketing and evaluation of their proximity to Europe as a geographical advantage. "Since speed is a crucial part of the production, industrialists who could adapt to the requested capacity and quality standards, have achieved success in production and export without difficulty," she continued.

"Turkey, which once produced the designs of foreign brands, has now become a country that creates its own brands and directs the world denim fashion with its designs and technological products. In 2018, we took our place among the most successful countries of the world in both denim fabric and denim garment exports," she said.

Engin said that Tunisia, Egypt, Italy, Morocco, and Bangladesh took the lead in Turkey's denim fabric exports. "The fact that the production shifted to the east in terms of costs and that many of the global firms carried out their production activities in these countries increased exports to the region," she said.

She further stressed that Germany, Spain, the U.K., the Netherlands and Denmark were among the top players in Turkey's denim clothing exports, which clearly demonstrated Turkey's ability to produce top-end denim garments.

Pointing to China, Bangladesh and Vietnam in the Far East; Italy in Europe; Mexico and the U.S. in the Americas; and Tunisia and Egypt in the Middle East as the prominent target markets for Turkey's denim fabric imports, Engin said the U.S., all of the EU countries, Japan, and Hong Kong stood out as the priority target markets in denim clothing.