Differing fortunes for Brazilian leather and footwear

For the first five months of 2022, the volume of Brazilian footwear exports rose by 30.3 per cent over the same period last year.

According to Brazil’s Secretariat for Foreign Trade (SECEX), the value of the country’s leather exports in May 2022 – which totalled USD 109.2 million (GBP 91.8 million) – fell by 8.5 per cent when compared to the same month of last year. In terms of volume, Brazilian leather exports in May of this year declined by 26.2 per cent from the May 2021 figure to 11.2 million square metres.

The cumulative total value for the first five months of 2022 was USD 551.8 million (GBP 464.4 million), which represented a drop of 1.6 per cent compared to January to May 2021. The volume of leather exported from Brazil for this period – for which China, the US and Italy were the major buyers – was recorded as 60.2 million square metres, a decrease of 21.9 per cent.

In contrast, Abicalçados (the association for the Brazilian footwear industry), reported that during the first five months of 2022, the country’s shoemakers exported 64.2 million pairs, which were valued at USD 538.7 million (GBP 452.7 million). This performance represents a growth of 30.3 per cent by volume and is up by 66.5 per cent in revenue compared to 2021. For the fifth month of this year, shipments were reported as totalling 10.5 million pairs worth USD 104 million (GBP 87.4 million) – boosted by 19.8 per cent and 59.5 per cent respectively over May 2021.

Haroldo Ferreira, executive president of Abicalçados, stated that an increase in exports to the US is decisive. Between January and May, Brazilian shoe factories shipped 10 million pairs there – up by 87.2 per cent. These were valued at USD 146.3 million (GBP 123.5 million), which equates to a noteworthy 108.6 per cent rise year-on-year.

Publishing Data

This article was originally published on page 3 of the July/August 2022 issue of SATRA Bulletin.

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