According to Haroldo Ferreira, Executive President of Abicalçados, “the progress of vaccination in our main international markets and the consequent cooling down of Covid-19 has been fundamental for the recovery. The speed of recovery has been surprising, and is a great indicator for starting 2022 on the right foot”. According to him, the volume of shoes exported in 2021 is already higher than in 2019 in 77 destination countries, out of more than 160 countries that import Brazilian footwear.

The data compiled by Abicalçados, the Brazilian Footwear Industries Association, shows that in the first eleven months of the year, footwear exports generated 805.7 million US dollars. This figure suggests an increase of 31% in volume and 34.6% in value, as compared to the same period last year. Footwear exports have yet to recover in value, on a comparable basis to similar period of 2019.

In November alone, Brazil exported 11.68 million pairs of shoes, worth 93.2 million US dollars. This reflects an increase of 22.3% in volume and 74.5% in value from November 2020. On a comparable basis to the same month of 2019, the figure indicates an increase of 39% in volume and 33% in value. The Executive President of Abicalçados highlighted that in November there was increase of 83.5% in volume and 103.2% in value of leather shoe exports, as compared to the same month of 2020. Leather shoes represent currently almost 40% of the footwear sector’s export in terms of revenue.

Main destinations

In November 2021, footwear exports to the US (the main destination for Brazilian footwear exports) grew by 138.8% in volume and 210.6% in value, totalling 26.8 million US dollars. In the first eleven months of the year, the US imported 13.55 million Brazilian pairs of shoes, worth 204.36 million US dollars, up by 59.2% in volume and 61.3% in value, as compared to similar period last year.

The second foreign market destination for green-yellow footwear was Argentina, which purchased 1 million pairs of shoes, worth 8.54 million US dollars. The figure reflects an increase of 35% in volume and 38.5% in value,  on a comparable basis to the same month of 2020. From January to November 2021, Brazilian footwear exports to Argentina grew by 67.5% in volume and 52.2% in value, generating 100.9 million US dollars, as compared to the same period of last year.

France comes next, having bought 907.4 thousands pairs of shoes in November, worth 6.3 million US dollars. This indicates an increase of 7% in volume and 0.6% in value, on a comparable basis to November 2020. In the first eleven months of 2021, Brazil exported 7 million pairs of shoes to France, generating 56.6 million US dollars, which reflects an increase of 9.8% in volume and 8.7% in value, as compared to similar period of 2020.

Brazilian Footwear Industry

Brazil has one of the largest footwear industries in the world, mainly focused on the internal market. However, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted a year of 2020 especially difficult for the sector: the Brazilian Footwear Industries Association noted that national production of footwear dropped to levels of 16 years ago, and official statistics show that exports reached their lowest figure of the decade. Nonetheless, the World Footwear 2021 Yearbook (more information available here) indicates that Brazil ranked fifth both among the top 10 footwear producers and the top 10 footwear consumers.