São Paulo – The value of Saudi Arabian imports of Brazilian shoes increased by 86% from January to September this year, according to data supplied by the Brazilian Association of Shoe Manufacturers (Abicalçados). The Saudi market purchased US$ 10.06 million in shoes from Brazil during the period. In the same period last year, imports totalled US$ 5.4 million.
"We believe this growth to be the result of continuous work by Brazilian companies so as to provide footwear with greater speed and quality. This can be ascertained from the significant attendance of Arab buyers at Brazilian stands in international fairs, especially in Germany," says the executive director of Abicalçados, Heitor Klein, referring to the GDS trade show, in which Brazilian enterprises usually take part, and which is heavily attended by Arab importers.
"The [Arab] region has hot weather, so it is even easier to supply them, considering that the specialty of Brazil is precisely summer season items," says Klein. The executive also claims that the country is exporting higher value-added shoes to the Saudis. "The average price of the pair of shoes exported to Saudi Arabia was US$ 9.71. In the same period last year, the average price had been US$ 7.65," he claims.
Proof of that is the fact that export revenues have increased much more than the exported volume. From January to September, the Brazilian shoe industry exported 1.036 million pairs to the Saudi market, as against 707,000 pairs in the same period of 2009. In other words, there was growth of 46.5%. According to the Abicalçados, Saudi Arabia ranked 22nd on the list of importers of Brazilian shoes up until September.
From January to September, Brazil exported 109 million pairs of shoes, generating US$ 1.13 billion in revenues. There was growth of 11.5% in revenues and 16.4% in volume. The leading target country for Brazilian exports was the United States, followed by the United Kingdom, Argentina, Italy and France.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
