SWEDEN - Ikea's chief financial officer for Turkey Kerim Nisel  has informed Reuters that the Swedish flatpack furniture supplier is to move more of its production to Turkey in response to increased shipping costs and problems with global supply chains.

Products it expects to make and then export from Turkey, including armchairs, bookcases, wardrobes and kitchen cabinets, are currently shipped thousands of miles from east Asia to Middle East or European markets.

"Due to shipment problems we faced during the pandemic, we are attempting to have more manufacturing in Turkey," Kerim Nisel told the news agency. "We all saw in the pandemic that diversification is so important. It might not be a good strategy to produce items in one country and then try to transport them all around the world".

Nisel said the cost of a container from east Asia had risen from USD 2,000 to USD 12,000 even before Covid-19 spread worldwide in early 2020. "It is more rational to have [products] manufactured closer where they are sold. That's why we want to have them manufactured in Turkey".

Ikeas's move follows similar steps by other European brands such as Benetton, which is bringing production closer to home by boosting manufacturing in Serbia, Croatia, Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt with the aim of halving production in Asia.