MARBLE - International Natural Stone & Technology Fair ended with great success. MARBLE 2008 broke a record with trade visitors coming from 86 countries. It became a remedy for Turkish Natural Stone Industry experiencing financial hardships.

MARBLE - International Natural Stone & Technology Fair, which has been identified with İzmir and a worldwide known brand mark, carried on its development in its 14th year and guaranteed success. MARBLE became the biggest export fair of .

1.097 companies from and abroad participated in the fair on 42.500 sqm area between 26-29 March 2008. There were 51.336 trade visitors from 86 countries all around the world. Domestic trade visitors came from 71 cities of .

MARBLE’07 attracted 1.038 exhibitors from 34 countries. There were 49.578 trade visitors from 77 countries all around the world.

ALL AROUND THE WORLD IN FOUR DAYS

Having introduced Turkish natural stone to new countries, worked for increasing the share of its market position in the world and attracted more and more foreign buyers, İZFAŞ welcomed more than 3.000 foreign trade visitors.   

Trade visitors especially from and flocked to MARBLE. 200 Chinese trade visitors were the focus of interest with their purchases. Indian trade visitors followed Chinese trade visitors.

Special hosted buyer program was applied for the visitors coming from , , , , , and . Trade visitors from South American Countries like , , , Puerto Rico and were interested in establishing business contacts.

VISITOR COUNTRIES

Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, People’s Republic of China, Denmark, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mauritania, Moldova, Morocco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino Republic, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, South Africa, South Cyprus, South Korea Republic, Spain, Syria, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunus, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, U.A.E., U.K., U.S.A., Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Virgin Islands, Yemen and Zimbawbe.

FOCUS OF INTEREST: EAST AND SOUTH-EAST REGIONS

MARBLE 2008, second biggest specialized fair of the industry, was the first world meeting. Trade visitors were interested in the stone samples from the new quarries of East and South-East Regions.

8.500 tonnes of processed, semi processed and raw stones were exhibited and 20 tons of 400 blocks were sold at MARBLE 2008.

So many exhibitors reached their sales volume of their annual quarry production in just only four days. Export-oriented big companies’ sales were worth of 250.000 – 300.000 USD per company.

Estimated natural stone reserves of is 14 billions of tons and the revenue of the export of natural stone is 1,5 billions of USD. It is expected that MARBLE will lead the increase in this amount by means of the trade connections.

MACHINE SALES WERE HOPEFUL

Construction machineries of heavy tonnage and stone processing machineries took strong interest from the trade visitors, as well. While plaques stating that “Sold” were hanged even at the first day, exhibitors realized machine launchings in the framework of MARBLE. Machines were sold not only to domestic companies, but also foreign companies.

HUGE CONTRIBUTION TO ECONOMY

The result of MARBLE’s contribution to the city and Turkish economy was very high during four days. The estimated cost of accommodation, transportation and the other expenses is 75 million USD at least.