TAYFUN GORA, EXPORT DIRECTOR OF EMAY: WE HAVE BEEN INCREASING THE EXISTING MARKETS WITH OUR NEW INVESTMENTS
Tayfun Gora, Export Director of Emay Elevator said; “Unfortunately, our export activities have been greatly disrupted due to the pandemic. Because neither customer visits were possible, nor could we go to fairs. In addition, since our main market was Northern and Western Europe, and these regions were heavily affected by the virus, this put our business in a quite difficult situation. However, by adding new markets to our portfolio with the investments we made on the spot and on time, we have not not only preserved the existing ones but also increased them’’ and he also noted that the Euro- USD parity changed periodically, and that we could see this more clearly when we examine the last few years.
Gora said, “In short, we witness a sham fight. The value of USD decreases, US exports increase, when the current deficit reaches the desired point, the USD gains value, the EURO loses value and EU exports increase. This time, when the current account deficit of the EU reaches the desired level, the whole process restarts, and it goes on like this. As for the Turkish Lira, I do not believe that the high or low exchange rate affects exports. Unfortunately, we do not have that strong currency. In addition, as a manufacturer, I do not think that high exchange rates positively affect exports, as most of our costs are foreign exchange-indexed.
When we asked; “What have you determined as sustainable export policies in 2021?’’ , Tayfun Gora stated that; “We shall continue to market the product we have in the best manner we know. But the year 2021 shall be very different compared to 2020. Trump, who opposes universality, shall hand over the administration to Biden, who has adopted universality as a principle. This shall either change everything or let things settle. Our advantage is that we, as a nation, and as the industrialist of this nation, are flexible and able to adapt quickly to new situations.
Gora continued his words as follows, ‘‘I believe that we are entering a period that we shall witness serious changes not only as a country but also as the world. Therefore, I do not have much foresight about exports in 2021. However, we shall continue to work and try to seize opportunities. In the year we left behind, our most important problem was obviously Covit-19. However, our most important problem as a country is that our image is still poor in terms of quality products and we are not able to create confidence. I think we have overcome this by producing technology to a large extent. Therefore, my suggestion to other companies and even my request shall be as ‘Let us increase our quality and focus on high technology product manufacturing’. In short, let us compete with technology and quality, not price.
