São Paulo – Brazilian footwear exports increased by 17.5% in January from a year ago, the Brazilian Footwear Industry Association (Abicalçados) reported this Thursday (9). REvenue went from USD 69.3 million to USD 81.4 million.
Sales volume decreased. In January 2016, the Brazilian industry had shipped out 11.44 million pairs of shoes. The amount dropped to 11.37 million in the first month of this year. The decline was minimal, though, at 0.6%.
The top destinations were the United States, France, Argentina, Bolivia, Israel, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain, Chile and Russia. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, two Arab countries which were in the top 20 last year, did not make the list in January 2017.
Abicalçados welcomed the news of higher exports. “These numbers reflect deals that were already underway. The question is whether we will keep the pace in months to come, since the dollar lost value, and that makes our product less competitive abroad,” said CEO Heitor Klein in a press release.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
