The Portuguese footwear industry is doubling down on its efforts to become a strong alternative to Italian shoe production through a new investment.
According to Luís Onofre, president of the Portuguese footwear association APICCAPS, the country’s shoe industry is investing 600 million euros between now and 2030 to better position Portugal as a relevant player in the luxury footwear sector.
“We want to be an important international reference,” Onofre said in a statement. “Every year, 24 billion pairs of shoes are produced, about 90 percent of them in Asia, which means that 9 out of 10 people wear Asian shoes. We don’t think this is sustainable, on the contrary, we think there is room in the market for players like Portugal.”
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To do this, the industry is adopting a new strategic plan that focus on four major priorities – qualification of people and companies; sustainable products and processes; flexibility and rapid response; and active presence in the markets. The plan also includes 24 measures and 113 actions to reposition the sector in the international competitive arena, Onofre added.
Two major projects, BioShoes4All and FAIST, which are focused on automation, digitalization and sustainability, are already underway and should be completed by the end of 2025.
“Very soon, the Portuguese footwear industry will be the most modern in the world,” Onofre said.
There are currently 1,500 companies employing 40,000 people in Portugal’s footwear industry – which accounts for footwear, components and leather goods. The sector currently exports 90 percent of its production to 173 countries on five continents.
This comes just days after APICCAPS Quarterly Economic Survey for the first quarter of 2024 reported signs of recovery in the Portuguese footwear industry.
According to the APICCAPS Quarterly Economic Bulletin, prepared by the Catholic University of Porto, “in the first quarter of the year, production and orders still had an unfavorable evolution, but less pronounced than in previous quarters.”
In the first quarter of 2024, production in the footwear industry in the European Union, according to Eurostat, declined and remained considerably below that seen a year earlier. More specifically, the industrial production index for the 27 member countries as a whole decreased by 5.7 percent compared to the last quarter of 2023 and 17.8 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous one.
