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The impact of the pandemic in footwear imports
International footwear trade was heavily impacted by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and its subsequent dissemination across the globe. Check the impact on the main footwear importers
The United States of America (USA) are the world’s largest footwear importer, absorbing almost twice the value of footwear imported by Germany, the second largest footwear destination. However, in the first semester of 2020, they experienced the largest decline in imports among the world’s top ten footwear importers (26.7%), contrary to the positive evolution recorded, on average, between 2016 and 2019 (2.3%).
Import declines in excess of 20% were also observed in France (21.6%), the United Kingdom (20.7%) and Belgium (24.3%), while the lowest decline was record in Republic of Korea (2.8%).
Conversely, China was the only country whose imports have increased in the first semester of 2020 (2.3%), albeit at a lower pace than the recorded, on average, in the previous three-year period (21.8%); since 2016, Chinese imports have almost doubled, moving up from the 10th to the 5th place on the rank of the world’s main footwear importers.
About the Report
International Footwear Trade 1st Semester: The Impact of the Pandemic describes the evolution of footwear trade worldwide in the first semester of 2020, using the data available as of September 2020. The figures presented, both for the current and previous years, correspond only to the countries that had reported their trade statistics by that date. This leaves out some important players in the footwear trade scene, particularly some important Asian exporters but, in the previous year, the countries included in the report accounted for more than 90% of all footwear trade.
Image credits: Max Williams on Unsplash
