Final week, Aleppo’s industrial fairgrounds had been crowded once more for the primary time in years. Greater than 300 firms from about 20 international locations gathered on the Nastex 2026 exhibition. The exhibition is a four-day occasion that Syrian authorities are touting as a step towards reviving the nation’s once-strong textile business.
For many years, Aleppo and Damascus have been synonymous with effective textiles. Factories in northern Syria produced clothes for Arab and European markets, and Damascus textiles had been so prestigious that they had been used at royal occasions, together with Queen Elizabeth II’s marriage ceremony gown.
Syria’s exports are constructed on a mix of high-quality cotton, expert employees and aggressive costs, making the nation a real power in regional manufacturing.
It was dismantled inside just a few years as a result of civil struggle that broke out in 2011. Factories had been broken or destroyed. Traders and expert employees departed for Türkiye and Egypt, taking their accrued know-how with them.
Syrian businessmen and officers have claimed that gear from factories in northern Syria was transferred to Turkey throughout the battle, a declare the Turkish authorities has constantly denied.
Within the early 2000s, cotton manufacturing, which had reached about 1 million tons a yr, collapsed.
“Earlier than 2010, Egypt’s textile business nearly did not exist,” mentioned Wissam Muhaissin of the textile and hosiery firm Sardaro Muhaissin.
“Due to the Syrian youth who migrated to Egypt and the Syrian experience, at this time Egypt is likely one of the rising international locations. The identical factor occurred with Turkey,” he informed Euronews.
The idea for restoration rests on what the business nonetheless has. Mukhayshin places labor at its heart.
“Turkey’s minimal wage is about $1,000 a month, excluding social insurance coverage and holidays, whereas employees in China earn about RMB 5,000, which is equal to $800 to $900,” Muhaisin mentioned.
“In distinction, Syria has a talented workforce, low prices and excessive productiveness, which permits it to compete with Turkey and China.”
He added that Syria’s proximity to the Gulf and European markets diminished transportation time and prices in comparison with items from China.
Betting on a comeback
Makram Shattahi, vice chairman of the Syria-China Enterprise Council, informed Euronews {that a} partnership settlement was signed with Suzhou Land Group to develop an industrial zone with a deal with furnishings and a employee coaching heart, along with the event of Syria’s Sheikh Najjar Industrial Metropolis.
“We need to develop certified employees who can instantly be part of workshops and factories and work on the manufacturing ground,” Shattahi mentioned.
He mentioned the primary indicators of restoration had been already seen. “Lots of those that invested in Egypt and Turkey at the moment are beginning to return, and the massive variety of manufacturing traces and equipment offered on the honest exhibits that many factories are getting ready to renew operations,” Shattahi added.
“If we’re exporting to the Gulf or Europe, we’re a lot nearer than China. This reduces time and transportation prices and creates a possibility to present Syrian merchandise a aggressive edge.”
Hassam Osman, whose household has run a material, clothes and printing manufacturing unit for almost 70 years, mentioned the standard of native yarn stays an issue, forcing him to rely totally on imports from India.
Together with the home market being too small to maintain an export-oriented restoration, gasoline and mazut costs had been the most important every day constraints.
“The Syrian market alone shouldn’t be sufficient,” Osman informed Euronews. “What we actually want is extra exports.”
In a single nook of the exhibition, Ahmed Dubeik is attempting to revive silkworm farming and silk dyeing, crafts that when gave Syria a spot on medieval commerce routes.
“We try to make Syria a Silk Highway once more, however we’re nonetheless working with guide machines,” he mentioned. “If we are able to set up the newest reeling machines, we will enhance high quality and improve exports.”
Top quality textiles, Syria’s secret weapon
In response to authorities knowledge, the variety of textile-related institutions will attain greater than 24,000 in 2024, representing about 19% of all industrial institutions within the nation and second solely to the engineering business.
Of those, solely 56.8% are at present working, and greater than 10,000 amenities are nonetheless not working.
Syria’s Minister of Economic system, Commerce and Business Nidal al-Shaar mentioned that if the nation can entice funding and convey idle factories into operation, the nation’s cotton manufacturing might attain 300,000 to 400,000 tonnes a yr, sufficient to produce home factories and help the promotion of textile exports.
The federal government is specializing in creating three industrial cities: Sheikh Najjar in Aleppo, Adra within the Damascus countryside, and Hassia in Homs.
Western international locations lifting sanctions on Syria earlier this yr modified the calculus for a minimum of some potential buyers.
“Capital is cowardly, so the sanctions made buyers afraid to inject cash into industries that require giant quantities of capital,” Muhaishin mentioned.
“At this time, sanctions are lifted and we’re hopeful that totally built-in manufacturing traces, from spinning to yarn to completed merchandise, will return.”
