Aleppo Hosts Textile Fair, Signaling Syria's Industry Revival Efforts

Aleppo's industrial fairgrounds were busy again last week for the first time in years, as more than 300 companies from around 20 countries gathered for the Nas Tex 2026 exhibition, a four-day event that Syrian officials are billing as the opening move to revive the country's once-formidable textile industry.

For decades, Aleppo and Damascus were synonymous with fine fabric. The mills of northern Syria produced garments that reached Arab and European markets, and Damascus textiles carried enough prestige to be used at royal occasions, among them the wedding gown of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II.

Syrian exports were built on a combination of high-quality cotton, skilled labour and competitive pricing, which made the country a genuine force in regional manufacturing.

The civil war that broke out in 2011 dismantled that in a matter of years. Factories were damaged or destroyed. Investors and skilled workers left for Turkey and Egypt, taking accumulated know-how with them.

Syrian industrialists and officials have alleged that equipment from factories in northern Syria was transferred to Turkey during the conflict, allegations Ankara has consistently denied.

Cotton production, which reached roughly 1 million tonnes a year at the start of the 2000s, collapsed.

"Before 2010, Egypt's textile industry was almost non-existent," said Wissam Muhaysin, of textile and hosiery equipment company Sardaro Muhaysin.

"Today Egypt is one of the rising players, thanks to Syrian youth and Syrian expertise that moved there — and the same happened in Turkey," he told Euronews.

The case for a recovery rests on what the industry still has. Muhaysin puts labour at the centre of it.

"The minimum wage in Turkey is about $1,000 a month, not counting social insurance and holidays, while a worker in China earns around 5,000 renminbi, the equivalent of $800 to $900," Muhaysin said.

"In Syria, by contrast, labour is skilled, costs less and has high productivity, which allows it to compete with Turkey and China."

He added that Syria's proximity to Gulf and European markets shortened shipping times and costs compared with goods coming from China.

A bet on a comeback

Makram Shattahi, vice-president of the Syrian-Chinese Business Council, told Euronews a twinning agreement had been signed with Suzhou Land Group to develop Syria's Sheikh Najjar industrial city, along with a furniture-focused industrial zone and a worker training centre.

"We want to prepare qualified workers who can move straight into workshops and factories to work in production," Shattahi said.

He described the first signs of recovery as already visible. "Many of those who invested in Egypt and Turkey have now begun to return, and the large number of production lines and machines sold at the fair shows that many factories are preparing to resume operations," Shattahi added.

"When we export to the Gulf or Europe we are much closer than China. That shortens time and shipping costs and gives Syrian products a better chance to compete."

Hussam Othman, whose family has run a fabric, clothing and printing factory for nearly 70 years, said local yarn quality remained a problem, forcing reliance on imports, mostly from India.

Fuel and mazut prices were among the biggest daily constraints, alongside a domestic market too small on its own to sustain an export-oriented recovery.

"The Syrian market alone is not enough," Othman told Euronews. "What we really need is more exports."

In one corner of the exhibition, Ahmed Dubeik was trying to revive silkworm breeding and silk dyeing, crafts that once gave Syria a place on medieval trade routes.

"We are trying to make Syria a Silk Road again, but we are still working with manual machines," he said. "If we manage to introduce a modern reeling machine, we will be able to improve quality and boost exports."

Quality textile, Syria’s secret weapon

Government data show that the number of textile establishments reached more than 24,000 in 2024, representing around 19% of all industrial establishments in the country — second only to engineering industries.

Of those, only 56.8% are currently operating, with more than 10,000 facilities still out of service.

Syria's Minister of Economy and Industry Nidal al-Shaar said the country's cotton production could reach between 300,000 and 400,000 tonnes a year — enough to supply domestic factories and support a textile export push — if investment could be attracted and idle plants brought back online.

The government is focusing development on three industrial cities: Sheikh Najjar in Aleppo, Adra in the Damascus countryside and Hassia in Homs.

The lifting of Western sanctions on Syria earlier this year has changed the calculation for at least some potential investors.

"Sanctions used to make investors afraid of pumping money into an industry that requires large amounts of capital, because capital is cowardly," Muhaysin said.

"Today, with sanctions lifted, fully integrated production lines — from spinning and yarn through to the final product — are expected to return."