* Turkish natural stone sector will increase export rates after 3 years. With a 20 percent increase in exports, the sector aims at more than $ 2 billion foreign exchange revenue.
* If we do not do what the Italians who design fashion design products do now, the industry shrinks severely.
* Over 60 Chinese people operate quarries in Turkey today. We do not have any measures to prevent this.
* Today, colored ceramics have begun to replace natural stone. This obviously affects us, but we do not have a chance to tell them to withdraw from the sector. But whatever they do is not a natural product.
Turkish natural stone sector, which has become one of the leading sectors after 1980, aims to put an end to the ongoing stagnation that has been dominating the sector, through accelerating natural stone trade. Mevlüt Kaya, the president of Aegean Mineral Exporters Association, says: “We expect 20 % increase in natural stone exports in 2017. Our export rate that had been declining in the last 3 years will boost again. Turkish natural stone export income will exceed 2 billion dollars, due to new trade regulations in China and the removal of quotas in India.”
Reflection of Political and Economic Developments on to the Sector
Mevlüt Kaya, who came together with the media representatives before the 2017 Ordinary General Meeting of Aegean Mineral Exporters Association said: “We are proud of having completed our third presidency period with success. Natural stone export rates, that had been declining for the last 3 years, has started to rise again in 2017. We are doing many activities in order to widen our market share. All domestic and global developments extremely affect our sector, as it affects all other sectors in the world. The economic and political challenges experienced worldwide in the previous period, reduced export rates in all sectors. The natural stone sector has also been affected by this overall situation. Total value of mineral exports in Turkey was 3.8 billion dollars in 2016. 47 % of this total value was achieved by the natural stone sector. Aegean Mineral Exporters’ Association achieved 770 million dollars of natural stone export, which corresponds to 20 % of total mineral export in Turkey in 2016. 70 % of this total amount was consisting of natural stone products.”
Crisis in Europe effected the natural stone sector
Kaya said: “The İslamphobia in Europe and terrorism has affected our sector at the rate between 8 % and 10 %. Due to negative perceptions against Turkey in Europe, even our current customers are afraid to come to Turkey. Terrorism is everywhere in the world but unfortunately we are closer to risky geography. We are trying to convince our customers abroad about their wrong perceptions but it is not easy to break prejudices. A natural stone customer wants to choose materials by touching and feeling them. You can’t sell natural stone just by showing an image. They do not give orders without seeing the stones. We have handicaps at this point. This lack of orders from European buyers has been replaced by demand from Middle East, Far East, China and India.”
Contribution of crisis to the Sector
“Turkish natural stone sector had been exporting 77% of natural stone production to the U.S.A. before the mortgage crisis in 2008. We recovered from the effects of US mortgage crisis thanks to China and India. In a sense, the mortgage crisis in U.S.A., by creating awareness for alternative markets, had been an opportunity for our natural stone sector. Turkish natural stone sector has enlarged the scope of target markets for its natural stone trade. Today we are selling natural stone all over the world. We should purposely make natural stone production and export.
“We should do what the Italians do”
Italian natural stone sector was in the same class with Turkish natural stone sector 25 years ago. However, today, they are more advanced as they have blended natural stone with design and fashion. Italians used to process Turkish natural stone and sell it high priced in the market before. They realized after the occurrence of Turkish natural stone sector in global markets that they cannot compete Turkish products. Thus, they changed their concepts and added design into their production phase. To exemplify in rough figures; the Turkish natural stone producers sell a 1ooo tons for 100 thousand dollars while the Italians sell 100 kilos of natural stone for 1000 dollars. If we don’t do what the Italians do today, the sector will end up shrinking seriously. For this reason, we develop projects towards the end projects. Our URGE project about processed materials is still in progress. Minister of Economy, Mr. Nihat Zeybekçi supports our METAM Re & De Project, which we have been conducting in Afyon for the education of blue and white collar employees in the sector.”
“Our biggest weapon is our color selection”
“Turkey is an indispensable figure for global marble sector. Uniqueness of our natural stone is our competitive advantage in the market. Even tough if a country decides not to consume Turkish products; they would still buy Turkish marble. Our biggest weapon is the color selection of our stones. We own various types of, multi-colour marble. Today, Turkey is a marble processing technology exporter country. Marble and processing technologies complete each other. Turkey has become a marble machinery exporter country. We are supplying natural stone for prestigious projects. Turkish natural stone and natural stone processing technology products are able to compete the highest technology materials in quality and production today. I am feeling hopeful about 2017.”
“You can’t tell ceramic producers to withdraw from the sector.”
“Colored ceramic products are being used in all spaces where marble is used. However, there is nothing we can do to prevent this. Material choice depends on countrys’ economy. If a country is wealthy, it prefers natural stone in projects. If it is not, ceramic is an alternative. As we are producers of natural stone, we want our materials to be on demand. There are no measures taken for the use of artificially colored materials such as ceramic in the market. Whatever the ceramic producers produce is not as natural as the natural stone itself.”
“Natural stone is our only advantage”
“Turkey is an indispensable figure for global marble sector. Uniqueness of our natural stone is our competitiveness advantage in the market. Even tough a country decides not to consume Turkish products; they would still buy Turkish marble. Our biggest weapon is the color selection of our stones. We own various types of, multi-color marble. Today, Turkey is a marble processing technology exporter country. Marble and processing technologies complete each other. Turkey has become a marble machinery exporter country. We are supplying natural stone for prestigious projects. Turkish natural stone and technologies products are able to compete the highest technology materials in quality and production today. I am feeling hopeful about 2017.”
“No measurements against Chinese Quarries in Turkey”
“Turkish natural stone producers are not allowed to make production or conduct quarries in any other country. On the contrary, there are 60 Chinese quarry owners in Turkey. However, there is not a single Chinese person, who owns a quarry in Greece or Italy. No measurements are taken against Chinese Quarries in Turkey. I hope necessary adjustments will be done and measures will be taken in this subject. These natural resources are our global values. Chinese can export processed material from Turkey too instead of just selling blocks.
Bureaucrats should pay more attention to such problems of the sector.”
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