Footwear exports projected to grow 21% in 2021

Projections from ABICALÇADOS (the Brazilian association of footwear industries) point out that Brazilian footwear exports are expected to increase 21.2% in 2021, while production is expected to grow 19% in comparison with the figures for 2020.

It won’t be a true growth, but more of a recovery; the sector was strongly affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Exports from January to November this year fell by 19.4%. Between January and October, production fell by 27% and it is estimated that by the end of the year the decline will have stabilized at 25%.

2020 was a difficult year for the Brazilian footwear sector. Largely dependent on the domestic market which is responsible for 85% of sector sales, the industry saw its production plummet, according to data from IBGE (the Brazilian Institute of geography and statistics). The drop in manufactured volume, influenced by exports, will cause the sector to return to the production levels of 16 years ago, in the range of 650 million pairs.

See the graph below for Brazilian footwear exports from January 2017 to October 2020:

Brazilian Footwear Exports (HS 64) | Jan 2017 to Oct 2020 | TEU

Source: DataLiner (To request a DataLiner demo click here)

In a note, the CEO of ABICALÇADOS, Haroldo Ferreira, informed that the Covid-19 pandemic severely affected the footwear industry, which produced 250 million pairs less than in 2019 and laid off 20,000 workers. “There is a recovery trend seen in the last months of 2020. For the beginning of next year, the trend is this, especially considering vaccination and the normalization of physical commerce, on which we are still dependent,” said the executive. The return to 2019 levels, however, will only be reached in 2022, according to Ferreira’s estimate.

Sources: Anba and Comex do Brasil

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