International Footwear Components Fair Opens Its Doors

International Footwear Supplier Industry Fair Opens The 68th International Footwear Supplier Industry Fair AYSAF, organized in cooperation with the sector's umbrella organization Footwear Supplier Industrialists Association AYSAD and Artkim Fuarcılık, is preparing to bring together 36 business lines from around the world, including footwear supplier industry materials, leather, synthetic leather, textiles, soles, heels, accessories, machinery, chemical and mold manufacturers. AYSAF, the largest fair in Eurasia and the second largest in Europe in its sector, is hosting 327 companies. The fair, which is expected to be visited by over 15,000 people from more than 80 countries, will remain open until 6 May 2023. Following supply chain disruptions in China and the Russia-Ukraine War, the footwear supplier industry reached 500 million pairs of shoes in production and USD 1.3 billion in export volume in 2022 as a result of Turkey's geographical location and the sector's price-quality balance. It is expected that the industry will complete 2023 with 600 million pairs of shoes in production and USD 1.7 billion in exports. Cengiz Yaman, Chairman of the Board of ARTKİM Fuarcılık, speaking at the opening ceremony: "As a result of the Purchasing Delegation organized under the auspices of the Ministry of Trade and coordinated by İDMİB, 8 companies from Côte d'Ivoire, Moldova and Croatia are at our fair for purchasing purposes. Through our sectoral Purchasing Delegation Organization conducted jointly with AYSAD and ARTKİM, 37 companies from Italy, Ukraine, Russia, India, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Jordan, Algeria, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia, Lebanon, Georgia and Kosovo will be present at our fair. We hope that all these efforts will satisfy our participating companies. Our aim is to support producers from every sector, bring them together, and support their development. Trade fairs are good occasions for these purposes. This year we have united industry, art and social responsibility under the AYSAF roof. We must adopt a life intertwined with art. From this year onwards, art will have a greater place in the fairs we organize." he said. Sait Salıcı, Chairman of the Board of AYSAD: "In the first week after the earthquake, we managed to deliver approximately 100,000 pairs of shoes sent by the noble members of our sector to the earthquake-affected areas. As associations and foundations, we also launched a machinery equipment aid campaign for Hatay, which was the area most heavily affected by our sector; initially we dispatched 3 trucks of machinery before the holiday and enabled nearly 100 producers to resume production. We will continue to provide whatever assistance we can to revitalize our sector. Our sector, which exceeded USD 1 billion in exports in 2021, achieved USD 1.218 billion in exports in 2022. In the last quarter of 2022, we entered a period in which the inflationary environment was felt heavily and monetary policies were tightened, and in the first 3 months of 2023, this impact was reflected in declining exports and increasing imports. In the first 3 months, shoe imports increased by approximately 120 percent. In the last quarter, we met with our supplier industry companies and gave signals that the export customer would go back towards the Far East; we explained in our pricing that we need to put our shoulder to the wheel. Many of the supplier industrialists we spoke with showed sensitivity and made sacrifices. Similarly, many of the footwear association members and its members made sacrifices. Now it is the turn of chain stores to make sacrifices. Let us protect domestic producers; domestic producers are always needed." he said. The AYSAF Fair, which will be enriched with exhibitions, installations, panels and conference programs, also featured a design show by Alexander Moreno, who broke the Guinness World Record for the fastest shoe collection creation in 9 hours 40 minutes 32 seconds at the International Footwear and Leather Fair held in Colombia and also won the ASIST World Record.