ZÜCHEX Home and Kitchenware Fair, the 3rd largest fair in the world and the 2nd largest fair in Europe, organized with the support of the Glassware Manufacturers Association (ZÜCDER), ended on Sunday, September 17th. 1200 brands from more than 150 countries attended the fair, which was held at TÜYAP for the 33rd time between 14-17 September. Within the scope of the ZUCH X Talks program, ways to increase e-export for the 2023 target of 7 billion dollars of exports were discussed. While 2 billion dollars of trade was achieved at the fair, European and American buyers made their mark on the fair.
ZUCHEX Home and Kitchenware Fair, the heart of the kitchen industry, which has reached a size of 12 billion dollars, opened its doors at TÜYAP for the 33rd time between 14-17 September. 1200 brands and 45 thousand people from more than 150 countries came together at the fair, which is the 3rd largest fair in the world and the 2nd largest in Europe. While all 14 halls with a closed area of 100 thousand square meters at ZUCHEX, organized by ZÜCDER, the umbrella association of the industry, were full, all of the stands opening to the garden of the fair were sold out. Mesut Öksüz, President of ZÜCDER, the largest umbrella organization of the sector, which has a foreign trade surplus of 4.65 billion dollars by importing 1.47 billion dollars against a total export of 6.12 billion dollars in 2022, said: “The foreign trade surplus of our sector has increased by 98 percent in the last 10 years. It has increased by 64 percent in the last 5 years. We make serious contributions to the Turkish economy. Our goal this year is to achieve 7 billion dollars of exports. Although there has been a decrease in our exports as a result of the disasters we have experienced, we show a performance above last year in our exports. We also signed a trade of at least 2 billion dollars with ZUCHEX. We think that we have shown a good way for our members on how to increase their e-export with the ZUCH X Talks we organized during the fair. In our glassware and kitchenware sector, Turkish manufacturers have reached a good point in terms of product quality and service. Today, 'Made in Türkiye' has become a preferred brand in many markets. "Our goal is to make Turkey one of the top 5 glassware exporting countries in the world," he said. While the export kilogram unit price of the sector increased by 13.8 percent in the last 5 years and rose to 3.95 dollars in 2022, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and France are the top 4 export markets among the countries we export the most to.
58 percent of exports are to EU countries
While especially US buyers attended the fair, Mesut Öksüz pointed out that they should get a larger share from the US market. “The fact that Turkey's share in the American market, where 28 percent of the world's glassware imports are held, is below 1 percent, makes the USA a target market for us. In addition, the fact that our export share remains below 1 percent to the world's largest importers such as Canada, Hong Kong and Japan is an indication that we should focus on exports to these countries. The USA, which ranks first in the list of world importers, is one of the countries with the furthest average distance among Turkey's export markets. Exports, which gradually increased from 160 million dollars, reached the highest value of 298 million dollars in 2021. While the annual average change rate between 2018-2022 was 16 percent, the value between 2021-2022 decreased by 4 percent, and our exports decreased to 286.3 million dollars. Among the USA's suppliers, imports from China are in the first place with 42.3 billion percent, while Mexico, Korea, Thailand and Vietnam are the most important suppliers. "Turkey is the 14th supplier of the USA after Italy, Germany and France, which are among its competitors in Europe," said Mesut Öksüz, and pointed out that 58 percent of the glassware industry's exports are to EU countries.
Industrial kitchen equipment leads the way in exports
In 2022, 8.25 percent of our total exports of 6.12 billion dollars to 226 countries and 505.6 million dollars were made to the United Kingdom, while Germany, Italy, France and Israel were also important export countries. In our total imports from 139 countries worth 1.4 billion dollars, China ranks first with a share of 49.63 percent and 731.4 million dollars. In addition, Germany, Malaysia, Romania and Italy are among the countries from which we import significantly. According to TUIK data, in the January-June period of 2023, it had a foreign trade surplus of 1.74 billion dollars. The foreign trade surplus is targeted to be approximately 5 billion dollars by the end of the year. Although there is a small change in the figures for 2022 compared to 2021, the ranking remains the same. Product groups according to their export figures; The industrial kitchen group is listed as electrical appliances, metal, plastic, glass, porcelain, ceramics, tiles, gift and decorative ornaments and wooden tableware and kitchenware. Among all tableware and kitchenware, the product group that exported the most in 2022 was industrial kitchen equipment with 2.4 billion dollars and a share of 40.15 percent.
