President praises Portugal’s footwear industry
03/12/2014
Dr Cavaco Silva went on to pay tribute to the level of investment Portuguese footwear manufacturers have made in research and innovation in recent years and said the sector had, over the last 30 years, gone from being a traditional, labour-intensive and low-added-value industry to being “one of the most dynamic, modern and expansionist industries in the Portuguese economy, exporting approximately 95% of its production”.
An economist by trade, Dr Cavaco Silva said that, in his view, the global footwear industry changed for ever when China became a member of the World Trade Organization in 2001 (following 15 years of negotiations). He added: “Asia’s share of global footwear production went, in less than 20 years, from 45% to 87%. China alone has increased its share of world footwear production to 61%, compared to 17% two decades ago. Europe, which at the end of the 1980s had a 34% share of world production, has seen this shrink to only 3% of the international total.”
He said Portuguese companies had responded to this change by introducing new products and technology to increase their competitiveness and to increase the quality of the shoes they make. “The footwear sector today comprises more than 1,700 companies,” the president said, “employing more than 41,000 people and exports 95% of its production to 150 countries. In 2013 exports exceeded, for the first time, €1.7 billion and grew by 8%.”
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