Signs of growth in shoemaking reported around the world

A leather and footwear holding company called Marko has been established in Belarus. This is to support a plan by the national government to rely less on footwear imports, which it aims to cut from the 2011 figure of 80 per cent of all footwear purchased to 31 per cent in 2018. A programme of upgrades is expected to begin in the near future at a Belarusian leatherworking and fur enterprise. It is hoped that by 2019 the holding company will manufacture at least five million pairs of shoes each year, having created 1,000 jobs.

Exports by Tunisian companies in the leather and footwear industries are reported to have increased by 3.7 per cent during the first eight months of 2013 to 694.4 million dinars ($422.6 million), from 669.9 million dinars ($407.7 million) during the same period in 2012. Imports of footwear increased slightly by 2.7 per cent to 459.2 million dinars ($279.5 million) late August 2013, against 447.3 million dinars ($272.2 million) in the same period in 2012.

According to the Bangladesh Export Promotion Bureau, footwear worth $56.4 million was exported from the country in July, the first month of the 2013-14 financial year. This was a 34 per cent increase over the value of exports in July 2012. Bangladeshi tanners also exported finished leather worth $39.4 million in July – a 37 per cent growth compared to last year. The government has set an export target of $545 million for footwear in this financial year, and a goal of $459.7 million for finished leather exports.

Publishing Data

This article was originally published on page 4 of the December 2013 issue of SATRA Bulletin.

Other articles from this issue »

---