Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

The fair started with the opening speeches of Tarsus Turkey General Manager Zekeriya Aytemur, ZÜCDER Chairman Mesut Öksüz, İDDMİB Chairman Çetin Tecdelioğlu and TOBB Vice President Ali Kopuz, respectively. 

Kopuz said that the glassware sector, with its knowledge and brave entrepreneurs, has come to an important point in the world and has a great share in production, employment and export. 

Pointing out that the sector is one of the rare sectors with a current account surplus, Vice President Ali Kopuz said, “It brings net foreign currency to our country. As of 2021, the total exports of the sector increased by 33.5 percent compared to the previous year and amounted to 6 Billion Dollars. Its imports are about 1.2 billion dollars. In other words, you are giving a foreign trade surplus of 4.8 Billion Dollars.”

Kopuz, emphasizing that the sector has completed the process of maturation and imposing itself on the world, said, “The coming period should be the period in which we will play for world leadership with a design-oriented approach. In order to shed light on the future work of our sector, we established our TOBB Glassware Council in 2017. Under the roof of our Sector Council, we express our demands and problems with a strong voice, convey them to the relevant places and follow up with them.”

Kopuz underlined that Züchex Fair brought together 36,332 visitors and 650 exhibiting companies from 142 countries in 2021 and that it was the 7^th fair with the highest total number of exhibitors among all fairs, and wished that the fair to be held this year would have more abundant participants.

After the opening speeches, Ali Kopuz visited the stands of the TOBB Glassware Council Members and exchanged views.