São Paulo – January to March saw 30.47 million pairs of shoes shipped from Brazil, with revenue reaching USD 250.12 million. Shipped volume was down 2.7%, while revenue slid by 3.4% year-over-year.
Argentina is currently the leading importer of Brazilian footwear (USD 39.14 million, up 9.8%), surpassing the United States for the first time ever. This was the case because sales in US dollars to the latter were down 22.6%. Exports were down 22.4% to the UAE, 42.5% to Israel and 22.2% to Bolivia.
Brazilian Shoe Manufacturers Association (Abicalçados) chairman Heitor Klein said the fact that the real gained on the dollar has significantly influenced sales. “Since the dollar tends to drop to BRL 3 or further throughout the year, we will have significant problems with exports,” he said.
Klein said that last year, sales to the USA had already slid by 14% (both in volume and revenue). During Q1 2018, 2.8 million shoe pairs, with revenue reaching USD 37.13 million. The third biggest importing country was France, at 2.76 million pairs and USD 18.26 million, up 19.3%.
Ranking 19th out of 20 leading importers of Brazilian footwear, the United Arab Emirates are the only Arab country in the top-20 list, at 341,800 pairs and USD 3.06 million.
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
