Turkey To Promote Its Marble In Competition With Italy

IZMIR - Turkish marble sector-- which continues to grow 30 percent each year-- decided to promote the sector to compete with Italy.
Ak Marble Industry & Trade Company Chairman Hayrettin Celik told A.A that Italy processes Turkish marble and exports to international markets as its own marble. "We can prevent this only by promoting Turkish marble sector," he added.
Stressing that 35 percent of world marble reserves are in Turkey, Celik said, "you can find many different types of marbles in Turkey which do not exist in any other place in the world."
He added that Turkey's marble export was under 1 billion USD 3-5 years ago, adding that last year Turkey exported marble worth of 3 billion USD. "Our target for the year 2010 is 6 billion USD. We want to contribute 12 billion USD to gross national product," he stated.
Celik said that Italy, for years, imported Turkish marbles in blocks, and processed them before exporting under the label of Italian marble.
He added that marble sector in Italy is very developed.