Portuguese footwear expects year of consolidation despite international instability

Portugal’s footwear sector is expecting that this will be a year of consolidation in international markets despite instability with the sector exporting 90% of its production.

“We expect that 2025 will be one of consolidation for Portugal’s international footwear market”, said Paulo Gonçalves, the spokesperson for the Portuguese Association of Footwear Industries, Components and Leather Goods and Substitutes (APICCAPS) at the annual MICAM shoe fair in Milan last week.

According to the association, the sector now exports over 90% of its production all over the world and is not totally dependent on the EU market which, he says, is a position that is “highly advantageous” for the national sector to be in.

Nevertheless, Paulo Gonçalves pointed out that the International market is “deeply unstable” and that the last two years had been “particularly difficult ones for fashion and for Portuguese companies in the sector in particular”.

And APICCAPS says it is impossible to make forecasts for the coming months let alone the next few years.

On July 27, the EU and US arrived at a trading agreement that foresees import tariffs at 15% on all European products.