ABOUT DENIZLI - Economy

Denizli was a small town with a population of 12.000 when the Turkish Republic was founded in the 1920s. Today, Denizli, with a population of 850.000, is the second big center of industry and tourism in the Aegean Region following Izmir.
With its location among fruitful fields and a distant past, Denizli ranks today 20th among provinces of Turkey with respect to population, 13th with respect to economic activities, and 9th with regard to industrial development.
Forests accounts for 44% of provincial area of Denizli while meadows and pastures accounts for 4,9%. 31,8% of the area is dedicated to agriculture. The remaining 19,3% is left for accomodation and non agricultural activites. The most important agricultural products are cotton, tobacco, wheat and grapes.

A view of Organized Industrial District No. 1

A view of Organized Industrial District No. 1

Located at the intersection of the ways that reach Mediterranean and Aegean seas from the East and North of Anatolia, Denizli has always been a spot of an intense interaction.
A city located on fertile lands, Denizli has always been a center of quality cotton production as well as agriculture and stock breeding for long periods. It is well known that choice textile products woven in Denizli were used even by the Ottoman Palace.

A view of Organized Industrial District No. 1

Following the improvement of relations with the European countries, the first cotton yarn and cloth factory has been established by the government in Denizli in 1940 and an immense increase in production has been achieved in the weaving industry. Thus it became possible to distribute massive amounts of weaving products to every part of Turkey.
The rapid development of textile sector in Denizli has been an important factor that motivated the rapid improvement Turkey achieved in the area of textile industry. While weaving production has been manual or semi-automatic and has been marketed within the country until 1980s, discovery of foreign markets in 1980s led to establishment of new and modern plants.

As a result, exportation made from Denizli has grown bigger year by year, approximately reaching 1 billion US Dollars, in parallel to the rapid production increase that took place in 1980's .
Currently, an immense activity of textile production featuring mainly towel, bathrobe and bed sheet is underway at modern plants in the textile districts in Denizli, and these products are exported to more than 100 countries.
The exportation capacity of towel and bathrobe, which are the top two items of textile and clothing export products of Denizli, has reached 60% of total amount of exports that Turkey summed up on these products. Textile products of Denizli are exported primarily to EU countries such as Germany, United Kingdom and France as well as to other developed countries such as the USA and Canada.
In particular, bathrobe exports to the USA is significant. Approximately 40% of bathrobe import by the USA from all countries is from Turkey, and 70% of it is made from Denizli.
The biggest feed factory in Turkey, one of the top 5 factories of packaging materials, 3 of the top 7 facilities of glazed copper wire, one of the top 5 plants of cloth dying, one of the top 5 factories of electrolythic copper products are located in Denizli.

Full utilization from Organized Industrial District No. 1 has been achieved as a result of the rapid progress and investments in the industrial activities in Denizli. In the Industrial District, with lot sizes from 5.000 m2 to 70.000 m2, there are 130 companies which were active in 2002. The research – project studies of 28 enterprises are going on. In 1996, first a purification plant laboratory was established, which analyzed the pollution impact of the facilities located in the industrial district; then the construction of a purification plant started in early 1997, which was completed and started to operated in late 1997.

A view of Purification Plant

A view of Purification Plant

A view of Purification Plant

The construction of Özdemir Sabanci Organized Industrial District, the first private organized industrial district of Turkey, started in 1996, and the infrastructure investments were completed in late 1997. In this district, there are 100 lots with sizes of 25.000 m2.

Denizli Free Trade Zone is located on an area of 540.000 m2 near Cardak Airport and Özdemir Sabanci Organized Industrial District. As of the end of 2002, 23 firms applied to run in the Denizli Free Trade Zone, 15 of whom having license and the rest 8 of waits for the permission, while going on establishing their companies.

Acipayam-Yumrutas Industrial District is located on an area of 4.000.000 m2. The current situation map and master plan of the district is prepared. On the other hand, the determination works for the establishment of Tavas Industrial District.

In the international field, Denizli is reckoned to be the capital city of the towel, bathrobe and all of the home textile. However, because of the lack of a specialization customs in Denizli, the textile exporters have to burden additional freight, time andred tape costs. This case affected the industry export of Denizli negatively. Therefore, we have applied to the Government with the demand of charging the Denizli Customs Directorate with the authority of appling Textile Specialization Transactions. As a result of our struggles, by the announcement of the authority in the Official Journal number 24923 and date on 1 November 2002, Denizli Customs has been vested with the authority of specialization customs.