Footwear manufacturers have suggested that “Portugal could be an alternative manufacturing country to mass-produced production in Asia and has “given clear signs of its ambitions”.
Portugal’s footwear manufacturers have spoken in one voice in saying that “Europe cannot be resigned to taking a back seat” in production.
“We’ve got know-how, creativity, tradition and technology to put forward a credible and competitive alternative to the mass production model and Portugal has given clear proof of this ambition”, said Luís Onofre, President of the Portuguese Association of Footwear and Leather Goods and Substitutes (APICCAPS) at the opening of a conference on the ‘Future of the footwear industry’ in Porto on Tuesday.
Luís Onofre reported that Asia was responsible for almost 90% of the 24 billion pairs of shoes produced worldwide, which “makes the sector vulnerable and unbalanced” and “ignores the immense potential of other regions of the world, namely Europe”.
On the other hand, Vasco Rodrigues (Católica University) recalled that 30 years ago around one-third of footwear produced in the world had been made in Europe and that today that percentage had shrunk to only 2.3%.
Luís Onofre pointed out that the Portuguese footwear sector had “shown clear signs of ambition” and added that the cluster had invested €120 million over the past three years in areas such as automation, robotics and sustainability.
“It’s been the biggest period of investment in the history of Portugal’s footwear sector and has been a decisive step to make our industry one of the most modern in the world.”
Two major investments are currently underway: an investment of €60 million in sustainability with the BioShoes4All project and an investment of €50 million in automation and digitisation with the FAIST project. In the strategic plan for the next decade, the footwear cluster, whose challenge is to “become an international benchmark in the development of sustainable solutions”, intends to invest €600 million euros by 2030.