Packaging Industry Expands ‘The Circle' of Exports

Noting that value of packaging exports of Türkiye reached 8 billion dollars in 2022, Mr. Zeki Sarıbekir, President of the ASD Turkish Packaging Manufacturers Association, expressed different developments await Türkiye and the world in exports in 2023. Underlining that the main export market of the packaging industry is Europe, Zeki Sarıbekir said: “We must keep up with sustainability works to ensure continuity of our exports. As ASD, we closely follow the transition to a carbon-free economy. From this perspective, Türkiye can gain a major advantage within the framework of the climate neutral transformation experienced in the world. We can gain significant advantages in markets we are geographically close to, such as European countries, the Middle East and Africa. Türkiye will come forward even more with its location. We can expand our exports circle in exports. In addition, with the deterioration of the supply chain, the destination of the countries moving away from China is Türkiye. By making good use of the new opportunities, we can achieve an even higher growth in exports.” 

Celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2022, the umbrella organization of the packaging industry, the ASD Turkish Packaging Manufacturers Association announced the developments in the packaging industry and its targets for the future before the new year. Mr. Zeki Sarıbekir, President of the ASD Turkish Packaging Manufacturers Association noted that the association expects the market size of the Turkish packaging industry to increase from 28 billion dollars to 30 billion dollars and per capita consumption from 300 dollars to 380 dollars in 2023, which marks the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Republic of Türkiye and said: “We were targeting to increase our exports to 8 billion dollars. However, we think that we can reach our 2023 target by the end of 2022. Thus, we have redetermined our target for 2023 as 10 billion dollars. We ensure an economic movement of approximately 400 billion dollars with packaging in our country. We determined our 2030 target sector size as 50 billion dollars and export size as 20 billion dollars.”

GREEN DEAL WILL TRANSFORM EXPORTS

Mentioning that Türkiye has always succeeded in proving itself as a safe port with its stance in difficult conditions, Zeki Sarıbekir said: “Our advantage both in terms of logistics based on our geopolitical location and our price-quality balance create various opportunities for our country. We observed that such advantages came to the fore even more with the pandemic. We will continue our efforts to ensure available opportunities are sustainable. We aim selling to an increased number of countries and exporting at least half of what we produce by increasing the number of our markets.” Zeki Sarıbekir continued by adding: “There are two points in packaging manufacturing that are highly important. These are 'sustainability' and 'environment'. The European Green Deal for a sustainable environment keeps circular economy and recycling vision on its agenda. Among priority issues towards decreasing effects of climate change, there are responsible production, energy efficiency, renewable energy, greenhouse gas calculation - reduction. Turkish packaging industry is aware of the obligation to keep up with the transformations in sustainability in order to continue its exports to Europe, which is its main market. The European Union aims to gradually implement the European Green Deal within the framework of the climate neutral target by 2050. The 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) was organized in Egypt recently. General Secretary of our Association, Ms. Aslıhan Arıkan also attended this meeting. On this occasion, I would like to emphasize that as ASD, we closely follow the transition to a carbon-free economy in the world and continue to provide our industry with the support we can, endeavoring to fulfil our part.”

CLOSER LOCATIONS WILL COME TO THE FORE

Emphasizing that these developments will create different situations in exports, Mr. Zeki Sarıbekir continued as follows: “Exports of the packaging industry have similar characteristics to general exports of Türkiye. The main export market of Türkiye is the European Union, which is also the case in exports of the packaging industry. The EU's share in packaging exports is approximately 70 percent. There are very large and important markets in our close geography. This can provide advantages to Türkiye in every aspect. European countries, Middle East and African markets are right next to us. We can expand our circle of exports. Considering the situation in Russia, Türkiye became even more important for this country. As the packaging industry, we recently increased our exports to Russia by 50 percent. We expect this achievement to continue.”

DESTINATION OF THE COUNTRIES MOVING AWAY FROM CHINA IS TÜRKİYE 

Mr. Zeki Sarıbekir stated that considering the top 10 countries that receive their exports their presence in the European market is visible and added: “One of the most striking countries here is the USA. It has been among the top receiver of our exports for several years, but this year it rose to the fourth place. This demonstrates the importance of Türkiye in the USA market. The USA is searching for alternative markets. Türkiye came to the fore at this stage as well. With the deterioration of the supply chain, the destination of the countries moving away from China became Türkiye. Taking advantage of the new opportunities , we can achieve a much faster growth in exports.”

RECYCLING PACKAGING WASTE MUST BE EMPHASIZED

Pointing out at the importance of recycling of packaging in contributing to the national economy and the environment, Mr. Zeki Sarıbekir said: “Packaging waste is material that creates economy. Thus, we should reinforce our national recycling infrastructure. As ASD, we continue our awareness raising activities with different projects. In particular, we believe that recycling of packaging waste should be emphasized. Thus, we can both achieve a clean environment and gradually reduce and zero waste imports. The world is focused on zero waste management within the framework of sustainability. At this point, recycling comes to the fore as the most important building block of contribution to the circular economy and continuation of zero waste approach. Quality of recycling can be ensured by accumulating waste separately at the source and collecting separately by local municipalities.”     

Sincerely,

ASD Turkish Packaging Manufacturers Association