Abicalçados says that expectations around the elections and the uncertainty about the new government body in Brazil, added to the World Cup event, help to understand the recessive picture hitting the footwear industry in the country during 2014.

According to data recently released by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, IBGE, footwear production in the country between January and October dropped by 4.7%, with retail shrinking by 0.9%.

"We had a first half of the year more stable and a second half really bad", stated Heitor Klein, Executive President of Abicalçados. Commenting on the industry’s performance in 2014 he underlined that the drop in domestic demand for footwear was so sharp that even imports fell by 3.1% during the period January-November compared to similar period in 2013. For Mr. Klein, the World Cup ended leveraging business in other industries, such as entertainment.

Mr. Klein also mentioned the impact in employment, as the Association is expecting the industry to end 2014 with less 20 thousand jobs, adding: “next year will be dedicated to the necessary adjustments, and we expect that will lead to a return to growth in 2016”.

Abicalçados is also forecasting a drop in total exports for 2014: “We had many problems with shipments to Argentina, our second main market. Then we had the recurring problems of the Brazil Cost, added to abrupt currency fluctuations and political and economic instability in our core markets”, commented Mr. Klein.

According to the World Footwear Yearbook Brazil was the 3rd largest footwear producer in 2013, with an immense national market, which consumes much of the national production. The same source estimates Brazil to have been the 4th largest consumer of footwear in 2013.