São Paulo – United Arab Emirates was chosen again as the focus of international promotion actions of the footwear made in Brazil. The two organizations that maintain the Brazilian Footwear, program created to help companies from the sector to increase exports, renewed this Wednesday (10) night the agreement for the project, and the Gulf country is among the markets that will be worked upon the next couple of years.
The Brazilian Footwear Industry Association (Abicalçados) carries out the Project with the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil). “There is a huge amount of interest to work with the Middle East”, said to ANBA Cristiano Körbes, Abicalçados’s project manager. Besides the Emirates, the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Germany, China and Russia will also be the program’s focus in 2015 and 2016.
According to Körbes, the Market is not chosen only by its population and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). “There is also the region’s impact over the other markets”, said the manager, noting that the Emirates has an interesting market, with a high GDP, but that the actions done in the region gain repercussion in other Middle East’s countries.
The Emirates was kept as the focus of the program, just like the United States, China and Russia. Mexico came in in place of South Africa, and, from Europe, Germany was the sub for France and Italy. According to Körbes, the choices and changes are made to put in the radar markets that have greater potential, and also to diversify.
About the Emirates, the manager says that, at the start of next year, a research about its market will be made. The idea is for the study to check, for instance, what products can be offered by the Brazilian industry, in addition to what is already being sold. This research should bring information about other markets of the region, such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Brazilian Footwear will have a R$ 41.1 million budget until 2016, with R$28.5 million from Apex-Brasil and R$ 12.9 million from Abicalçados. The agreement was signed for the first time in 2010 and since then it is responsible for a 50% increase on the number of export destinations for Brazilian footwear, from 100 to 150.
The program establishes a series of actions, from plant development to product and image promotion. Next year, a website will be created and the companies that are project’s members will be able to access information about market, consumption, marketing, design, among others.
Brazilian Footwear will also take on market survey, offer marketing and design courses in partnerships with renowned institutions, promote purchase projects when bringing footwear importers to Brazil, organize trade missions, international press services, among other initiatives.
Körbes says that, as focus of the program, the Emirates will receive specific actions for its market, but that Arab importers also visit European footwear fairs, such as Micam, in Italy, and GDS, in Germany. Usually, they are invited to visit the Brazilian stands in these fairs.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
