Despite the adverse effects of the economic downturn in Europe and its own country, Portugal's shoe-making industry continued to grow against the trend in 2013. In the first three quarters, the export volume of shoe products exceeded 1 billion euro.
According to the data recently released by the Portuguese footwear association, in the first three quarters of this year, Portugal exported more than 56 million pairs of shoes, with an export value of 1.336 billion euros, an increase of 7.2% over the same period last year. Last year, the export volume of Portuguese shoes exceeded 1 billion euro for the first time in history.
Affected by the European debt crisis and other factors, the demand of traditional export market of Portuguese shoes in EU is declining, but the demand of emerging markets is strong.
Data show that in the first three quarters of this year, Portuguese footwear exports to countries outside the EU increased by 53% over the same period last year. Portuguese shoe industry attaches great importance to developing Chinese market. At present, Portugal has become China's seventh largest supplier of shoes. In the first nine months of this year, Portugal's exports of shoes to China increased by 31% year on year.
Portugal is the fourth largest shoe exporter in Europe after Italy, Spain and Belgium, and more than 95% of its shoe production is exported.
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