The Spanish footwear industry remains cautious in 2024 as shoe exports are expected to continue to decline this year.
According to recent data from Spanish Federation of the Footwear Industry (FICE), the concern stems from a marked slowdown in shoe exports in the second half of 2023. Indeed, in the first half of last year, exports grew by 1.7 percent in volume and 14.4 percent in value year-over-year but fell by 2.3 percent in volume and 0.3 percent in value year-over-year in the second half.
In its 2023 findings, FICE noted that once the post-Covid rebound ended, the pace of footwear sales decreased significantly starting in spring and worsening in the last quarter of 2023. This decline is attributed to the rise in inflation, the fall in family income and “serious effects” felt by the international geopolitical situation.
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Still, footwear exports reached 3.26 billion euros in 2023, an increase of 6.6 percent compared to the previous year, FICE reported. However, in terms of volume, footwear exports were down by 0.23 percent year-over-year to 158.4 million pairs.
Footwear production in Spain also fell in 2023 by 16.5 percent compared to the previous year.
“Beyond the figures, there is great concern in companies about the situation that the sector is going through as a consequence, mainly, of the fall in consumption, inflation and the difficult international climate generated by all the current geopolitical events,” Imanol Martínez, director of internationalization and marketing at FICE, said in a statement.
By country, sales have fallen in most of Spain’s main buyers. In France, the main recipient of Spanish made footwear in the European Union, sales volume fell by 2.1 percent last year. FICE said in its 2023 export report that the German market, the third largest buyer of Spanish footwear, is its “biggest concern in the EU” as sales plummeted 11 percent in the country last year.
Outside the EU, exports to the United States fell 26 percent, Canada dropped 29 percent and Mexico was down 13 percent.
“The United Kingdom continues to decline in the ranking, and we are not able to stop the fall either,” Martínez added. “And along with this, we are still far from recovering in Asian markets such as Japan, China or South Korea.”
On a more positive note, Spanish footwear exports to Italy, Portugal and Greece as well as Eastern European countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania remain steady, FICE reported.
Turning to imports, Spain brought in 4.6 billion euros worth of shoes in 2023. This data reflects a growth in value of 1.6 percent compared to 2022. In volume, 317.7 million pairs have been imported, which reflects a drop of 3.2 percent compared to 2022.
China continues to be the main importer of footwear to Spain but its weight in the total continues to decrease, standing at 57 percent of the total imported pairs.
