About 400 shoe factories were destroyed in the Antakya shoe cluster during two earthquakes in southern Turkey and northwestern Syria on February 6, 2023, writes Shoe Intelligence.
The numbers were provided to Shoe Intelligence by the chairman of the Association of Turkish Footwear Manufacturers (TASD), Berke Ichten. The destroyed factories accounted for about 10% of the country's production capacity, employing about 10 people.
In total, there are about 10 shoe factories in Turkey, employing about 000 people, the annual production capacity of all enterprises is about 350 million pairs. They are scattered throughout the shoe clusters of Istanbul, Izmir, Konya, Gaziantep, Antakya and Adana. Gaziantep and Adana also fell into the epicenter of the disaster, but the shoe factories located in these cities were not affected by the earthquakes.
The TASD chairman emphasized that the people working in the Antakya cluster "are experienced workers." Although he did not yet know how many lives were actually lost, he noted that some of them lived nearby, in the mountains near the city, which was less affected. “Some people have left the region, but if we quickly restore it, they will return,” Berke Ichten said, emphasizing the importance of their role in restarting the cluster.
Meanwhile, the Association is raising funds along with other associations such as Aysad, which represents shoe industry suppliers, and Tasev (Turkish Footwear Industry Research and Education Foundation), supported by the Turkish government, to finance the reconstruction of factories in Antioch. “The reopening is important to boost morale and support people in the region,” Itchten commented to Shoe Intelligence.
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