National footwear production fell 12.1% in volume last year to 198 million pairs, while production value fell 11.6% to EUR 6.5 billion.

Bearing in mind the sector exports 80% of the footwear it produces, the export figures were also fairly negative. Compared with a rise of 0.5% in 2008, when times were already tough, 2009 exports fell 13.3% in volume and 15.9% in value in 2009. In percentage terms, this is the biggest fall since 1980. Figures show 192.3 million pairs were exported with a value of EUR 5.8 billion.

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