Turkish Footwear Federation has voiced disappointment over the country’s latest footwear export figure which was $400 million in terms of value in 2011 while imports achieved $800 million.

The Federation’s chairman Ibrahim Bugur said: “We are disappointed on behalf of our industry due to low export and high imports. We are spending great efforts in competing against Far East countries. In order to increase our exports we need state incentives, lowered taxation and bank loans with low interest.

“Being a labour intensive industry we can help in lowering down the unemployment - which is a great problem for Turkey and many other countries.”