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BORDER BARRIERS
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2012 | www.footwearbiz.com
company that has been making shoes in Argentina for more
than 100 years, plans to build at an industrial park in Pilar, near
Buenos Aires. Grimoldi has said the project will allow it to create
150 new jobs. The site, abandoned by beauty products brand
L’Oréal in 2001, will now specialise in producing two million
thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) soles per year, for Grimoldi
and other shoe manufacturers. Grimoldi’s output grew by 14%
in 2011 and it currently makes 750,000 pairs of shoes a year
and holds licences to make shoes in Argentina for prominent
brands such as Caterpillar, Hush Puppies, Kickers, Timberland
and Merrell.
On the road again
Back at the border, by mid-July, there were reports that shoes
were starting to move. With almost $18 million worth of
footwear blocked on the border at that time, Argentina agreed
to allow more than 680,000 pairs to move from Brazil to its
southern neighbour.
At the start of August, Abicalçados released a statement
saying that a further 113,000 pairs of shoes had made it
through the border controls and were on their way to
customers in Argentina, but said it did not know when the more
than half-a-million pairs of shoes still stuck in the dispute would
move. It said Brazilian firms attempting to comply with
Argentinean licensing and import permit documentation were
experiencing an average weight of 191 days. The mood on the
Brazilian side of the frontier is less than optimistic and the days
of exporting 15 million pairs a year to its trading partner to the
south seem like a distant memory.
There is always football. But unlike the normal build-up to a
World Cup, this time there is no immediate possibility of
exacting some revenge on the field of play because, as host
nation for the next tournament in 2014, Brazil is taking no part
in the South American qualifying competition. The most recent
game took place in June in New Jersey. It was billed as a
friendly, but quite a serious scuffle at the end brought one red
card for each side. Argentina won by four goals to three.
Grimoldi is one of the footwear firms in Argentina to have
received the support of the government.
CREDIT: GOVERNMENT OF ARGENTINA