| Thus, among the first three processed and block natural stone importers,
the US, Japan and Germany, Turkey can export substantially to the US and
Germany, but has not yet broken in to the Japanese market.
Our inability to do exports to the second highest importing country of the sector may be
due to the distance.
However, since distance may also be of issue for the
US, the more central problem may be that our exporters are not familiar
enough with the Japanese market and that they do not produce towards this
market. It may be assumed that the incapacity to produce at Japanese standards
could be the reason why Turkish producers are not regarded very positively in
the Japanese market and why they couldn’t be established in the market.
Very simple example
The Mitsukushi Department Store, one of the largest department stores
of Tokyo, situated in the Ginza quarter, Tokyo’s major shopping center, ordered
marble from Turkey for covering its interior and exterior façade. Because
every marble block sent from Turkey were cut 15-20 mm shorter than the given
measurement, when marble blocks were laid on top of each other on the
exterior façade, about 1 meter of space above the building was left uncovered;
whereupon, marble blocks taken out from their places were returned to
Turkey. Today, the ground floor of this store is decorated by marble with
red veins/streaks, named "living marbles" on which there are fossil remains,
imported from Italy. More importantly, visitors who come in to see the fossil
remains are guided by hosts and in this way Italy is promoted.
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