Mexico in gloomy mood
05/09/2008
The mood at the SAPICA footwear and leather event in Guanajuato, Mexico, which will take place at the end of September, is likely to be low-key this year.
Speaking in the build-up to the exhibition, its managing director, Armando Martín Dueñas, has said that footwear consumption among Mexican consumers is slowing, and that the country’s footwear manufacturing sector faces tough challenges from a slowing US market and increasing energy costs.
He said Mexicans were buying an average of 2.5 pairs of shoes each per year, but said local producers believed too many of these shoes were imported. Mr Martín Dueñas added that the authorities in Mexico had seized 500 tonnes of illegal footwear imports in 2007.
He explained that of Mexico’s 4,100 footwear factories, 2,848 were in Guanajuato. But he said 89% of all these companies were small. Nine per cent of Mexican footwear firms are medium-sized and only 2% could be described as large producers, he said. But he said the footwear sector was responsible for 660,000 jobs in Mexico, although only 150,000 of these jobs were directly related to the industry.
One piece of good news he offered was the success of a scheme by which Mexican producers are able to export 200,000 pairs of shoes a year duty free to Japan. He said there was a possibility that the total could rise to 300,000 pairs.
Share this story:
