The Pakistan Footwear Manufacturers’ Association (PFMA) has declared its 2007 Juft footwear exhibition an overwhelming success. PFMA chairman, Khawaja Muhammad Ali said a larger number of exhibitors this time, 114 compared with only 52 the time before, was a reflection of Pakistan’s growing importance in the world footwear market.

Exports, mainly of leather shoes, have increased by 250% in recent years but still only account for 20% of the total output, Mr Ali later explained to www.footwearbiz.com. “One of the main reasons why our exports are going up is that China is changing,” he said. “China wants to make machinery, not shoes now. There are no new footwear factories starting up in China now. That leaves an opening for us. China cannot continue to produce 65% or 70% of the world’s shoes, and we can do better than the 1% or 1.5% we produce at the moment. The anti-dumping measures that the European Union has taken against imports of leather shoes from China [and Vietnam] have also helped us. As a result, the orders our members received went up by 20% in 2006.”

The European Commission has alleged that China has responded to the measures by channelling some of its footwear exports to Europe through Macau, a former Portuguese colony and now a semi-autonomous region of China. Mr Ali said that, if true, this tactic would be of little surprise. “Look, we have no problem with China,” he said, “but, like many other competitor countries, we want it to be realistic on currency and more willing to conform to World Trade Organization regulations. If it makes those changes, China will be as expensive as us.”

To put this another way, Pakistani footwear manufacturers are close to being as efficient as their Chinese counterparts. Mr Ali contends that the more industrialised producers in his country are more efficient than ever before.

At the same time, he admits that much of the market is still in the hands of the cottage industry made up of thousands of tiny manufacturers, especially in rural areas. Their focus tends to be on the women’s market, with Pakistani women buying on average three pairs of shoes a year. “After every 200 pairs, they have to change the colour, so it’s really only women’s shoes that these small manufacturers can produce,” the PFMA chairman added.

Men’s shoes, which have far fewer variations in style and colour, are in the hands of what he calls “the organised sector”, and it’s these companies that are responsible for almost all of Pakistan’s footwear exports.

Mr Ali concluded by saying he hoped that, within three years, the proportion of Pakistani footwear that goes for export will double to 40%. The leather is available, as the country has the fifth largest livestock herd size in the world, and the technical skills are in place. To enhance these further, the association has encouraged the government to help fund a new research and development centre and a training institute to improve management and marketing skills, so that, if and when big orders do pass to Pakistan from China the industry there will be able to respond.