In the past three years, the Portuguese footwear industry doubled its sales to over 18 countries outside Europe. Costa Rica, Yemen, Syria, Vietnam and Tanzania are among the new destinations of these products, which has long are exported to worldwide.
According to advance information by the Portuguese Association of Industries Footwear, Components, Leather Goods and their substitutes (APICCAPS), 13% of sales are currently represented by China, the U.S., Japan and Russia. As for the European Union, the export also grew 31% to 1.513 million euros.
The value of Portuguese exports in this sector increased over 40% since 2009, as well as the production which grew to the 74 million pairs.
[photo credit: Sheila Thomson]