NEW YORK - Turkish jewelry attracted great attention in a fair opened in New York, sources said on Thursday.
Around 40 Turkish companies displayed their collections consisting gold and precious stones in the ''JA New York Show'' held between July 25th and 28th.
Erhan Hoshanli, the head of Turkish ''Moda'' jewelry company and the Chairman of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce's Jewelry Committee, said, ''we believe these fairs are interesting'' and advise all companies to take part in such events.
Defining the United States as the biggest jewelry market, Hoshanli said, ''although it is not very advanced in production, the United States buys 35 percent of world jewelry. In jewelry exports Turkey is ranked the second, behind Italy. It is possible to increase our exports to the United States, to where we are currently exporting 500 million U.S. dollars of our overall 887 million jewelry exports. We are only competing with Italy.''
Ali Kemal Kucukselim, the head of the New York Office of Zen company, said that serious buyers were participating in such fairs, and defined these fairs as important opportunities for business deals.
Umid Inal, the head of Istanbul Jewelry Design, said that Turkish jewelry was higher in quality when compared with Italian jewelry, but Italian designs were better than that of Turkish.
(BRC-ULG) 29.07.2004