São Paulo – Brazilian footwear exports slid in June as the Brazilian Footwear Industry Association (Abicalçados) reported this Monday (8). Over the month, 6.4 million pairs were shipped for USD 65.45 million, down 25.8% in volume and 24.5% in revenue from a year ago.
Year-to-date through June 58.3 million pairs were shipped, yielding USD 480.7 million. The performance was 5.3% higher in volume and 1.3% lower in revenue year-over-year.
The top Brazilian shoes international buyers in H1 were the United States, with 6.4 million pairs, amounting to USD 101.25 million, up 28.4% in volume and 34.6% in revenue year-on-year. Argentina came in second, purchasing 3.47 million pairs from Brazil, totaling USD 44.5 million, down 37.2% in volume and 41.8% in revenue. France was third, with 3.47 million pairs and USD 26.16 million, down 1.1% in volume and 13.6% in revenue.
The result was mainly driven by a decrease in exports to Argentina, which is the second top destination of Brazilian footwear. “In H1 2018, the neighbor country surpassed even the United States as the main destination. The decrease in exports was swift and explained by how the IMF required that the country maintained its international reserves – inhibiting imports – as well as the poor domestic demand,” assessed Abicalçados president Heitor Klein in a release.
He points out that what “saved” the result was the increased sales to the United States, thanks to the war trade between Donald Trump and China. “The war trade has made American importers to search for suppliers other than China,” Klein said, stressing that 70% of the US footwear imports (1.7 billion out of the 2.3 billion pairs imported per year) are Chinese.
Among the top twenty international destinations for Brazilian footwear, only one is Arab. The United Arab Emirates appear at the 13th position, and in H1 they purchased 1.17 million pair for USD 8.23 million, up 87.8% in volume and 39.5% in revenue.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
