Apiccaps explains 20 billion pairs claim
15/09/2011
A publication called the World Footwear Yearbook, which APICCAPS has just produced, claims that global production last year was 20.18 billion pairs, including shoes made from a variety of materials.
China is the clear leader, with a production output that APICCAPS puts at almost 12.6 billion pairs in 2010. India is second on the list, with just over 2 billion pairs manufactured, followed by Brazil with 894 million pairs, Vietnam with 760 million, Pakistan with 295 million and Mexico with 244 million.
It is the China figure that is key to the 20 billion-pair total and the hardest number to verify.
According to the China Leather Industry Association (CLIA), domestic consumption of footwear in China (mostly produced locally) is running at 1.9 billion pairs a year. World Footwear magazine published analysis earlier this year showing that this number seems far too low and that the real figure is probably around 3 billion pairs. In its Yearbook, APICCAPS puts China’s domestic shoe consumption at 2.6 billion pairs.
CLIA has published figures that suggest exports of just over 1 billion pairs of leather shoes in 2010. We have seen no corresponding figure for non-leather shoes but APPICAPS insists that leather shoes account for 10% of exports. That would put total shoe exports at 10 billion pairs. With its estimate of domestic consumption of 2.6 billion, this gives a total output of 12.6 billion pairs.
APPICAPS has told us: “To estimate the production we based [our figures] on the equation Production = Consumption + Trade balance. We estimated consumption and production referring to information from local trade associations and incorporated it into our models.”
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