Originally published in Hurriyet, on March 3, 2020
China exports 12 billion dollars jewelry products to the United States, but corona virus disrupt the trade. Mustafa Kamar evaluated the situation and said; “the outbreak would dislodge the world supply chain, a great opportunity, Turkey is ready to fill this gap”.
With the corona virus epidemic, the slowdown in production in China has increased the interest of Turkish companies in many sectors. Representatives of global companies, which turned to alternative markets due to the epidemic, also examined the jewelry sector. Speaking at an evaluation meeting to discuss developments with its members and address US exports, the President of the Jewelry Exporters Association, Mustafa Kamar, said that the Korona virus outbreak could increase the export volume in the jewelry industry. Reminding that the current jewelry export to the USA is 300 million dollars, Kamar said that they can increase this number to one billion dollars in three months and three billion dollars in a year.
“PRICE STUDY HAS BEEN MADE IN THE JEWELRY SECTOR”
Saying that the United States is one of the largest jewelry importers in the world, President Kamar said, “When we consider, our exports have a small place among US imports. The biggest importer of America is China. After Corona virus US Commerce Secretary Mr. Ross has came to Turkey. After putting 35 percent extra taxes on America, he went into research business in countries where they can supply these products. In some sectors in Turkey, “they did a research for the products that can meet China’s deficit and the jewelery sector was one of them” he said.
“WE WILL PAVE THE WAY FOR MICRO-NUMBERED EXPORTS”
Pointing out that they plan to increase US exports in a short time and speed up their efforts in this direction, Kamar said, “We thought about what we can do to increase our exports to America. We saw that the transportation of small companies is very difficult. For this, we have cooperated with one of the biggest logistics companies of America to manage export easily there. Thus, we will take the packages of those who want to export to the USA for 20 thousand, 10 thousand and even 5 thousand dollars from Kuyumcukent. We will make the door-to-door delivery process by providing the opportunity to reach every point of the USA comfortably. ”
“THE MOST READY SECTOR ON THE SCALE IS THE JEWELRY SECTOR”
Expressing that China exports about 12 billion dollars of jewelry to the USA, Kamar was asked, “Can you fill this gap immediately?” We are already working in one shift. We act with a capacity utilization rate of approximately 75 percent. We can export a billion dollars to the US within three months. When we make some preparation, we can increase to three billion dollars in a year. No matter how much we expand our scale, it is not possible to catch China’s $ 12 billion export soon, but we can make a significant increase. We have the potential” he said.
“TURKEY IS READY TO FILL THE EXPORTS DEFICIT”
In his speech, Mustafa Kamar said that the epidemic of Corona virus can also cause major changes in the current supply chain in the world. Kamar said, “Labor is cheap in China, but when there is a problem, the whole supply chain breaks. Today, China supplies 20 percent of the world. There is a great opportunity, Turkey is ready to fill this gap. But we also buy some semi-finished products from there. We are very good in leather, textile, but some chemical parts and intermediates come from China. In my opinion, the world will enter to a settlement period due to the Corona virus and will stop production in China. Most likely will shift to India. The same company will start developing production lines in different continents such as Europe and America in order to secure themselves outside India. Turkey is very lucky here, you can take direct investment. “It is a point in the Eurasia region, in the middle of Europe and Asia.”