São Paulo – Brazilian footwear exports in January reached 9.73 million pairs, down 22.2%, for USD 60.93 million, down 33.2%, from a year ago.
Despite the year-on-year decline, footwear exports in January show signs of improvement from last April. Exports were up 5% in volume and 2.1% in revenue from December 2020, the Brazilian Footwear Industry Association (Abicalçados) reported.
The year-on-year decline is explained by the fact that January 2020 hadn’t suffered the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic yet, Abicalçados CEO Haroldo Ferreira said. “The basis for comparison is too high for the standards we took after the pandemic started around March. Thus, the next two months are likely to post year-on-year declines, too,” he was quoted as saying in a news release.
On the other hand, the executive expects exports to keep growing in the first quarter, finishing 2021 at a 14.9% increase from last year. “It’s an ongoing revival,” he said.
Top destinations of Brazilian footwear in January were the United States, French and Argentina. No Arab country was ranked among the top 20 buyers.
Just like exports, imports in January reached their highest level since last April, despite having declined in both volume (-28%) and revenue (-47%) year on year. From December 2020, they climbed 43.8% to 1.98 million pairs for USD 21.8 million. “There’s an upward trend in footwear imports, particularly from Asia, as the Brazilian domestic market recovers,” said Ferreira.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
