Guadalajara, Jal. The footwear industries of Jalisco and Guanajuato, which together manufacture almost 80% of the national production, joined forces to face together the great challenges that affect this sector.
The president of the Chamber of the Footwear Industry of the State of Jalisco (CICEJ), Luis Quirarte Bernaldez, told El Economista that the national industry continues to be affected by the entry into the country of illegally imported footwear, lack of supplies, inflation and the “predatory policies” of the commerce sector.
According to the CICEJ leader, the footwear industry in Mexico It annually produces 225 million pairs and 90 million enter the country either by rough or technical contraband.
This means that 71% of the footwear is manufactured in Mexico and 29% is imported mainly from China and Brazil”, highlighted the industrialist.
In Jalisco, the footwear industry has between 1,200 and 1,300 work units that employ about 25,000 people, and the entity alone represents 30% of national production.
predatory practices
Quirarte Bernaldez explained that in addition to facing unfair competition from imported footwear, local companies -mostly micro and small- suffer from the “predatory policies” of the commerce sector, mainly from large chain stores that extend up to 90 days or plus the term to pay the manufacturers.
“Even, at the legislative level, there is already a bill where if you are a small or microenterprise, you cannot be asked for more than 30 days of credit; Many times they ask us for 30, 60, 90 or more days of credit and another problem is that many times they make us part of their discounts”, commented the leader of the industry in Jalisco.
He explained that if department stores offer discounts to the final consumer, they automatically transfer those discounts when paying manufacturers.
“The issue is that we know how much we sell but we don’t know how much we are going to charge…The problem is that, when they apply their discounts, you plan to receive 80% of your price and in reality, sometimes you receive up to 60% or maybe less ”.
After specifying that this 2022 the footwear industry recovered 90% of the activity it had before the pandemic, the president of CICEJ anticipated that next year, the sector expects growth of between 5 and 6%, for which he will bet on specialization in specific niches “because it is a market that is less competitive and better paid”.
