Argentina: government to control price of leather to help footwear exports
08/06/2015
She explained that her aim in taking these measures is to “avoid distortions in the competition among companies”.
Part of the government’s thinking is to stop tanners from exporting leather to buyers overseas for higher prices than local finished product manufacturers can afford, or are willing, to pay.
Ms Giorgi issued a call to all leather-sector companies to add as much value as possible to Argentinean raw material and to finished products manufactured in the South American country. Having achieved positive results in recent months in the domestic markets, the minister said the time was right now for Argentina to earn higher export earnings from its leather products.
With reference to a programme called Ahora 12 (Now 12), which the government introduced in 2014 to boost consumer spending on domesitcally produced goods, the minister said leathergoods and footwear was the sector that had achieved the second-highest sales in volume and the fourth-highest in revenues in the months in which the initiative has run so far. She said 14,000 companies had benefited and that the sector as a whole was bringing in an extra $10 million per week as a result of Ahora 12.
“The big challenge your companies face now is making the leap into export markets,” Ms Giorgi told leather-sector representatives. “In 2003, the challenge you had was to find a way of keeping the lights on.”
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