Guatemala celebrates 'best ever' national Footwear Fair
24/08/2007
Guatemala's seventeenth National Footwear Fair took place earlier this month with a call to the local footwear industry to innovate as its main objective.
The organisers said aftertwards that this year's event was the best ever. Eighty companies took part, an increase of 27% over last year's exhibition. Seminars and fashion, design and technology workshops took place alongside the main event.
Footwear manufacturers said "contraband" Asian footwear was still entering Central America in large volumes, but that locally produced footwear now had an equal share of the market.
Guatemala currently produces 24 million pairs of shoes per year, most of them made of leather.
The event was open to the public as well as professionals and buyers from various countries including Mexico, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Colombia.
