About 80% of Turkish leather production still revolves around processing double-face into finished garments. Some 80 million skins were processed in 2002 and official garment exports topped $750 million. 75% of all hides are imported with tanneries concentrated in 11 or 12 industrialised leather zones. The animal husbandry situation has not improved. Once an exporter of food products, farm policies have turned the country into an importer of major staple foods and agricultural items. Footwear producers and a few handbag and accessory makers source local cow hides for their excellent grain but the bulk of leathers for garments are imported either in raw, wet blue or as finished skins. With politics embedded in business life and decision-making, leather professionals are not the only ones worrying about economic inertia from a government that promised sweeping reforms. The ruling party seems western enough in Ankara, the nation's capital, but almost all provinces and rural areas have less secular powers in situ and economic issues are hazier.
展开▼
