Growing invasion of Asian footwear in Mexico
As reported by the executive president of CICEG, the Chamber of the Footwear Industry of the State of Guanajuato, Alejandro Gómez Tamez, during 2021 products from Asia increased their presence by an average of 26%.
This has caused that the local footwear industry has not yet achieved the desired job recovery, as planned.
In the first ten months of 2021, 79 million pairs of Asian footwear entered Mexico, estimating that more than 95 million pairs were imported throughout the year.
About this amount, 54% came from China, 25% from Vietnam and 11% from Indonesia. The amount paid by Mexican importers in 2021 for Asian products was US $ 945 million, which represents almost double what Mexico sells abroad.
To explain the evolution of the entry of Asian footwear and its impact on the market, the CICEG executive reported that Chinese footwear at the end of 2021 was 9% below what was imported in 2019, which indicated a post-pandemic recovery. Comparatively, he pointed out that local producers are 17% below the 2019 production.
Regarding formal employment, he pointed out that from 65,900 jobs in February 2020, due to the pandemic in March 2021 they fell to 49,900. Although 7,885 jobs were recovered from March to October 2021, there are still more than 8,000 to reach the February 2020 figures.
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