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SOURCING & SUPPLY CHAIN
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2012 | www.footwearbiz.com
R
ivalries between countries can be intense and
enduring. Fortunately the football field rather than
the battlefield is the most frequent theatre for them
these days and, in football, few national rivalries hold
the heat of the one between Argentina and Brazil. They have
played each other 93 times; 24 of those matches were draws,
while Brazil has won 34 and its neighbour 35, with Argentina
scoring a total of 148 goals in the fixture’s almost 100-year
history and Brazil 142. It’s a close-run thing and has not been
without its scandals, perhaps most notably amid accusations
that Argentina’s technical team at the 1990 World Cup
deliberately passed a bottle of contaminated water to Brazil’s
Branco, after which he began to feel unwell. Argentina went on
to win the match, a quarter-final, by one goal to nil. Brazilian
football fans still recall the incident with bitterness.
Reputations at stake
For the most part trade between the two neighbours, the
two largest economies in South America, has been conducted
with enough fair play to avoid any similar-sized business
scandal, but recent events have put tempers in the footwear
sector to the test.
An ongoing blockade on exports of shoes from Brazil to its
neighbour prompted a respected figure, Heitor Klein, the
executive-director of Brazil’s main footwear industry body
Abicalçados, to comment at the end of July that the situation
was beginning to cause serious damage to the footwear sector
in his country. “Contracts are being cancelled and production
levels in Brazil are being affected, as is the reputation of
Brazilian shoes in the eyes of retailers and consumers in
Argentina,” he said.
Upper limits
Argentina has had a series of import control measures in
place for some time, saying they are necessary to help preserve
jobs in its domestic footwear industry. Analysts say that these
measures appear to have affected major exporters in Asia far
less than they have producers in neighbouring Brazil. Towards
the end of 2011, Argentina said the value of footwear imports
had gone up by nearly 40% compared to 2010. In terms of
volume, imports over the period in question from Brazil fell by
2.3 million pairs year on year, while footwear imported from
China, Vietnam and Indonesia went up by 3.3 million pairs.
Argentinean footwear manufacturers’ association C IC has said
it is confident of reaping genuine benefits from this policy,
saying it can increase domestic shoe production to 125 million
pairs in 2012, 8.5% more than in 2011.
Border barriers
High fashion content means Brazilian firms have
been able to export around 15 million pairs of
shoes a year to Argentina. In 2012, the steady
stream has been reduced to a trickle.
CREDIT: VIA UNO/GDS
Disputes over trade between Brazil
and Argentina throughout this year
have led to piles of shoes building up
at the border.