Fears for Turkey’s footwear manufacturers
Industry commentators in Turkey have blamed a lack of control over footwear imports for the domestic shoe industry’s lack of progress.
Recent figures from Vietnam have raised eyebrows in Turkey. Vietnam’s ministry for trade and industry has put the value of the country’s footwear exports in 2024 at more than $23 billion.
In Turkey, meanwhile, in spite of tanneries making large volumes of leather footwear uppers at clusters at Gerede, Bursa and others, plus finished footwear factories with large production capacities, export figures remain relatively low and the mood in the industry is weak.
For 2024, the Turkish Footwear Manufacturers Association reported exports of 240 million pairs of shoes from Turkey with a value of just over $1.1 billion.
The association reported export figures of 301 million pairs and just over $1.3 billion for 2023, and of 370 million pairs and $1.3 billion for 2022.
Commentators have said the causes of this lack of growth for the Turkish footwear industry and include high labour costs and a lack of incentives for the industry from the Turkish government.
However, they insisted that the biggest reason for a lack of momentum in the Turkish footwear industry is a lack of restriction on imports into the country, with many pairs coming from China and Portugal, as well as from Vietnam.
Reports from Turkey suggest that some small and medium-sized factories in Istanbul, Izmir, Konya, Gaizantep and other regions now face closure.
Photo by YEKZAN on Unsplash
