Portugal exports 95% of shoes produced and continues to expand abroad

In the 2016 year, Portugal exported more than 81,6 million pairs of shoes with a total value of 1,9 billion euros. Annual sales growth was 3,2%, writes worldfootwear.com, citing statistics from UITIC Congress (The International Union of Shoe Industry Technicians (UITIC), a Portuguese organization whose mission is to develop technical knowledge in the shoe industry).

The Portuguese footwear industry, which employs 1473 companies and 38661 people is still focused on international markets, exports about 95% of Portuguese footwear. Over the past seven years, the Portuguese shoe industry has almost doubled its revenue from sales of shoes to foreign markets. This is a pretty good result, given the economic instability that has been observed in recent years around the world.

Although European countries are the main consumers of Portuguese footwear, sales growth has been observed in other markets. In 2016, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom remained the main countries importing Portuguese shoes. However, sales growth was primarily seen in markets such as China (9,7%), New Zealand (12,8%), USA (13, 6%).

Portuguese industry has undergone many transformations over the past few decades. Shoe factories have modernized their production facilities and production methods. Invested in the development of other aspects of their economic activities. In the world, Portuguese manufacturers are appreciated for the possibility of producing small series of products in factories in Portugal and for their ability to quickly respond to market needs.