By Mariya Gordeyeva

ALMATY, April 23 (Reuters) - Beset by economic hardship, enterprising Turkmens have found a way to supplement their incomes - smuggling towels and bed linen into neighbouring Kazakhstan.

Moving hundreds of items every trip in trademark Chinese plaid bags which at times have clogged airport luggage belts, informal traders - mostly women in their late forties and fifties - hand them over to relatives or local partners to be resold for up to five times the purchase price.

Dressed in traditional Central Asian garb such as headscarves and long skirts, these women arrive on almost every flight from Ashgabat to Almaty, Kazakhstan's biggest city.

Textiles are among the few items manufactured domestically from local feedstock and prices for items produced by state-owned companies have remained stable for years even as the Turkmen manat lost four-fifths of its value on the black market due to Turkmenistan's falling gas export revenue.

A deal to resume gas expor