Threat to 400 Italian shoe companies if Russia dispute continues, Assocal warns
12/09/2014
In the build-up to the Obuv’ Mir Kozi exhibition in Moscow, which will run from September 30-October 3, the organisation’s president, Cleto Sagripanti, said Italian footwear companies remain committed to their customers in the Russian market and that 190 of them will travel to Moscow to try to secure new orders at the event. However, he warned that their efforts may prove to be in vain if Russia imposes a ban on imports from the EU of products including shoes as a result of tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
Mr Sagripanti added that the absence of buyers from Russia at September 2014 edition of Micam in Milan was “concerning”. He said the political and economic crises that Russia and the European Union are involved in at the moment are “pushing dark clouds over the future of Italian footwear”.
He said that if all shipments of Italian shoes to Russia and its immediate neighbours were to stop, it would cost important footwear-producing regions of Italy, including Le Marche and Emilia Romagna, as much as 20% of their overall export revenues. “This would entail the risk of closure of more than 400 companies in the sector and the loss of approximately 10,000 employees,” he insisted.
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