High interest in the 28th Marble İzmir Fair
Marble İzmir Fair, the lifeblood of Türkiye’s natural stone exports, hosted the sector at fair Izmir between 26-29 April 2023. While professional visitors from all over the country and the world visited the fair, which took place with a record-breaking 150 thousand square meter exhibition area this year with 1015 participants, million-dollar agreements were made. Evaluating the fair, the participants stated Marble İzmir is the gateway to the world for them and the starting point of exports.
Organized by İZFAŞ for the 28th time this year, Marble İzmir International Natural Stone and Technologies Fair, hosted by İzmir Metropolitan Municipality, hosted all forms of natural stone and machinery. Meeting all needs with colour and pattern variety, many product groups ranging from blocks, finished stones, designs and machines met with their buyers. Marble İzmir has once again become the gateway of Türkiye, which has 5.1 billion cubic meters of natural stone reserves with a ratio of 33 percent, which is 15 billion cubic meters in the world, and continued to create new trade opportunities for the sector. The fair participants evaluated Marble İzmir and stated that traces of the pandemic in the sector were erased with this fair and were pleased with the interest shown.
Erdoğan Akbulak – Silkar Mining
“We’ve been in this business for 30 years. Specifically, after Covid, which means that there is a hunger in people that I see intense interest in. It’s not easy to do business here. Then, it is important to follow up, evaluate and convert it into sales. There are more frequent visits from some countries. Another situation that caught my attention is that this year, İZFAŞ brought 25 architects from the United States of America (USA), which is a good move. The architects that came are managers of architectural offices that are experienced. We also attracted their attention. They are also interested in our innovative products. This has to go on. As a company involved in the International Novel Design Competition since the first day, we are proudly following up.”
Mehmet Hikmet Çelikkol – Çelikkol Marble
“We export to most parts of the world. Marble İzmir Fair is our mirror. İzmir Fair is one of the biggest fairs in the world. Visitors come from all over the world. We always want to be here. When you are here, you open up to the world. When we started this business, we opened up to the world thanks to the Marble İzmir Fair. This fair is one of the starting points of exports. The interest is very good this year after the pandemic, far above our expectations”.
Hüseyin Şehitoğlu – Delta Marble
“We have been in the sector for nearly 30 years and export to 51 countries. We have been participating in the fair for many years. As someone who has known it well since 1997, this fair is one of the world’s largest fair organizations in the sector. We thank all the İZFAŞ team who contributed to this. The interest is very high, and the fair has become the locomotive of the sector in terms of exhibitors and visitors. As Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor, Tunç Soyer, met and consulted with us, the sector representatives, in the advisory boards, we acted together at the fair. We are very pleased with the fair and the organization. The Marble İzmir Fair can cover the gap occurred in the pandemic period. The interest shows that the sector will continue from the place that it left.”
Çetin Apa – Kömürcüoğlu Marble
“We are a 43-year-old company and export 80 percent of our production. We especially export to the USA, Europe and Australia. We have participated in all fairs so far. There is more participation compared to the last two years. As the effects of the pandemic have started lessening, there is more demand. We see that there are conversations about stones and prices in the stands. This is the most pleasant thing. Procurement committees and designer competitions also contribute to the fair.”
Fatih Öztürk – FMK
“It is a fair organization that we are much more comfortable with compared to other fairs worldwide. Our sector, which was at a 70 million dollars level when the fair started, reaches 2.5 billion dollars today. Because of that, fairs are the areas that make the biggest contribution to this. We are very pleased with the interest of the visitors. We got the highest interest this year. Compared to the past years, an enormous foreign portfolio has formed. Differently, there are people from countries such as Libya and Taiwan.”
Melike Alpay Özmen – Alpay Marble
“It is our twenty-seventh year, and we are at the fair this year as every year. Participation and interest are high, and we hope it will return to cooperation in the long run. I believe it will be beneficial in the long run.”
Özerhan Tokman – Nature Stone
“We have been participating for many years, and is a very important fair for us. Marble İzmir has also a very important place in the world. Every year, we take part in the fair with a different, newer project where we can show what can be done with marble. This year, we participated in the fair with the Lord of the Rings concept. Marble statues of many characters are on our stand. There is great interest in both the sculptures and our products. It was much more active than last year.”
Artistic forms of natural stones were also exhibited.
The artistic forms of natural stone were also exhibited at the fair and attracted great interest from the visitors. Sculptures of the characters in the movie trilogy adapted from Tolkien’s fantastic literature series The Lord of the Rings, reproduction of the mosaic of Dionysus and Ariadne, the original of which is in the Hatay Archeology Museum, the mosaic reproduction of the French painter William Adolphe Bouguereau’s work titled Music and Literature using thousands of pieces of marble in various colours, different kinds of sculptures, three-dimensional paintings, ornaments and kitchenware, and accessories attracted great attention.
