Turks pay $4 billion for import cosmetics products, official says

BOLOGNA- Anatolia News Agency

Turkish people spend about $4 billion on imported cosmetics products every year, said, Ercan Şimşek of the Turkish Health Ministry, at the Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna 2012, a cosmetics fair, which kicked off March 10.

Some 66 Turkish export companies in the cosmetics business are attending the Italian cosmetics fair, said Şimşek, including the Deputy General Manager of the General Directorate of Drugs and Pharmaceuticals, who is attending the fair in support of the Turkish firms. 

 “There are about 170,000 cosmetics products in the local market, of which only 45,000 are produced by domestic firms. That means 80 percent of the cosmetics products sold in Turkey are imported,” said Şimşek. There are 1,435 domestic firms in the cosmetics industry and 1,020 importing firms, he added.

If measures are not taken within the next 10 years, it will be impossible to see a global Turkish cosmetics brand, as they would not be able to gain strength in terms of infrastructure, he said.

Turkey’s exports in cosmetics rose 50 percent last year on an annual basis, and it has hit a volume of nearly $1 billion, said Selçuk Aksoy, the Vice Chairman of the Istanbul Chemicals and Chemical Products Exporters Association. Total chemicals exports hit $12 billion last year, he added

Noting that growth in Turkey’s cosmetics exports made a positive difference in the domestic market, Aksoy said: “Turkey has been an importer in cosmetics sector for many years. However, as the Turkish exporting firms develop and raise the quality of their products, this results in them not only opening up to world markets, but also increasing their shares in the domestic market, which in turn contributes to the lowering of imports.”