Turkey seeks to boost shoe exports to $6 billion

The Turkish shoe industry is having a good time. Chairman of the Board of the Association of Turkish Shoe Manufacturers Berke Ichten estimates Turkey's potential for the development of footwear exports at $5-6 billion. He said this in an interview published today on Worldfootwear.com.

As Berke Ichten noted, in 2021, Turkish footwear exports grew by 24-25% in value terms and by about 15% in quantitative terms, so that the export volume at the end of the year exceeded $1 billion.

In 2022, in the first 8 months of the fiscal year, Turkish footwear exports also increased by about 16%-17% in quantitative terms, with an estimated export volume of $2022-1,25 billion at the end of 1,30.

“We expect short and medium-term targets for the coming years to be around US$3 billion,” said Berke Ichten. - We work with our traditional markets such as Russia and Ukraine, Central Asia, North Africa and Arab countries. But in recent years we have increased our exports to Europe more than to other countries.”

Berke Ichten also called the achievement of shoe exports of $5-6 billion a "not too distant goal" for Turkey.

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“If you look at the nearby countries of Turkey, for example, those where the flight distance from Istanbul is 2 to 3 hours, there is a market that is about 60 billion US dollars, calculated according to the World Footwear Yearbook. So, we expect to reach 5-6 billion US dollars in the near future. This is not such a distant goal for us. Over the past few years, Turkey has experienced various situations related to the political situation, taking into account the neighboring countries, as well as the social and political situation. Thus, Turkish manufacturers have gone through very difficult tests, but this has created an industry that is strong enough to continue its growth; and I think that in the near future we will move towards new frontiers,” he said.

Mr. Itchten also noted that the supply chain problems caused by the pandemic have positively affected Turkey. At the same time, the main challenge for the industry, in his opinion, will be the economic crisis and recession expectations in the US and Europe.

“We can be flexible, produce small batches and deliver very quickly in 2 or 3 days. When shipping products, we are able to quickly reach the far eastern part of the European Union. Our population is very young, we are a very young country, and with the support of our government, we are also introducing some kind of vocational education system where students will work in industry for 4 days and study 1 day for vocational education. Through this new project, we expect to get more young people in our industry. The shoe industry needs talent, we need talented workers. And in order to develop and maintain the quality of our workforce, we need more young people to enter the industry,” said Berke Ichten.