Revenues with Brazilian shoes exports increased by 3% in the first quarter of the year in relation to the same period in 2005. The shoes factories in Brazil had turnover of US$ 502 million with the foreign market during the first three months of this year against US$ 489.4 million between January and March last year.
The performance, according to the Brazilian Association of Shoe Manufacturers (Abicalçados), is the result of an increase in the average price of the pair, which was sold at US$ 8.74, value 7% greater than last year.
The volume of pairs of shoes exported in the first quarter dropped 4%. There were 57.4 million pairs shipped abroad.
Brazilian shoes industry opened more than 2,000 new job opportunities in February, according to research made by the General Records Office for Employment and Unemployment (Caged).
Producers of shoes from the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina have started sending their products to the Arab market. At the end of last year, importers from the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait entered the list of foreign clients of shoe industries from the cities of São João Batista, Canelinha, Tijucas, Nova Trento and Major Gercino, which are part of the local hub in the shoe sector.
There are currently in the region 150 shoe factories, according to the executive manager of the Union of Shoe Industries of São João Batista (SincasJB), Rosenildo de Amorim.
Together they produce between 1.2 million and 1.3 million pairs of shoes a month, of which between 13% and 15% are exported. According to Amorim, importers are in South America, Central America, Europe, the US and Kuwait.
Anba