Turkey attracts attention with its young population ratio being richer than many World countries. 30% of the Turkish population consists of children ages 0-17. When we look at Europe this rate is 19%. The high proportion of the young population also affects the demand for baby supplies in a positive way. The distribution of young population, including 23 million children in Turkey; 0-4 age 6,3 million, age 5-9 years 6,2 million, age 10-14 age 6,6million, age 15-17 3,9 million and a total of 22,9 million.
The age at which the population is most intense is between 10 and 14 years of age. Birth rate is two times in Turkey than in Europe.
In Turkey families spend an average of $60 – $70 per month and $720 – $ 840 per year per child. Raising the level of awareness pushes parents to seek new products and services with a healthy growth of their children. On the other hand, each area has a very high potential of expenditure per infant, below the world average still, making the Turkish market attractive for domestic and foreign companies.
When compared to other sectors, infant – child market which grows 3-5 times faster,increases its share day by day in Turkish economy. Approximately 4,7 million children in Turkey are 0-3 years old babies. The lack of such high rates in many European countries makes Turkey one of the most attractive countries in this sense. In Turkey, baby food consumption per baby is 9,5 kilos, while the world average is 60 kg.
The ready-to-wear sector is one of the faster grown sectors. The data also shows that Turkey is the 7th largest supplier of apparel in the world and the second largest supplier in Europe. At the 5th place in the world of cotton production, which is the most the preferred raw material for the baby and children’s ready-to-wearsector, Turkey also plays an important role in organic cotton production thanks to its use of cutting-edge technologies, creative designs and employees’ knowledge and ability.
The smallest part of the baby market in terms of endorsement forms baby supplies and equipment from prams, bibim botas, baby boots to car seats. Turkey is seen as an important and more developed market for baby equipment in terms of its growing economy and growing population. Moreover, prams and car seats, which had previously entered the luxury goods category in terms of consumer perception, began to be seen as an important need, especially in the 2000s due to a decrease in the prices and increase in consumer awareness. The use of an automobile seat, which has become compulsory under the new legislation introduced by the European Union, is one of the most interesting products with potential growth in this group.
In the case of furniture, the economic size of the industry has reached 7 billion dollars. The share of children and young people makes up 5% of this percentage. However, this rate is increasing with the increase in the number of the population and at the same time the national income. Only 20% of this ratio constitutes baby furniture, which equates to an average market share of 70 million. There is an existing perception about the temporarization of baby furniture in Turkey. For this reason, families prefer to spend between 0-2 years of age with functional baby furniture, especially in infants, and then pass to the children’s room at later ages. The families who will have baby for the first time and with a better economic condition, the situation is different. These families are preparing “private baby rooms” and are shopping from boutique companies that are more specialized producers. It is known that private boutiques have 10% of the baby furniture market. Home textile products, including sleeping sets, bed spreads and bed linen, are a serious market for the baby and child market.
Turkey, which is able to produce different kinds of products such as niches, organic or bamboo in home textile, also meets an important demand in the world in this respect. One of the targets of Turkish manufacturers is to become the biggest exporter in the next few years.
Turkey has a big potential with its growing, young population and offers you and your firm a great opportunity to make business with high quality product companies.
Conexio is a consulting firm in Turkey based in Istanbul that provides services to local and foreign companies with commercial or investment interests in the region.