Argentina: industry minister wants manufacturers to make more shoes from local leather
25/06/2012
She reiterated that the government wants the footwear industry there to use more local leather, to produce more shoes (200 million pairs by 2020, compared to 115 million pairs in 2011) and to create around 12,000 new jobs in the process.
“Exporting semi-finished leather is not the future that I foresee for Argentina as we head towards 2020,” she said at a local industry event on June 19.
The minister explained that the government was helping tanners and footwear companies find strong demand in the domestic market, making investment in new technology possible through soft loans and protecting local industries from anti-competitive imports. “That’s quite a lot of help,” she said, “and we have to take advantage of the big opportunity we have in front of us. Leather is just as much a symbol of Argentina as Porterhouse steaks or the tango, but we are not getting as much out of it as we could.
She urged all players in the industry to add as much value to Argentinean leather as they can.
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