According to INDEC, the Argentinean National Institute of Statistics, 2016 has seen Argentine decreasing its consumption of shoes and leather accessories by over 30%. For example, INDEC has registered a shortfall of about 28 million unsold footwear or even no longer produced. Alberto Sellaro, President of the Argentine footwear manufacturers, labelled the situation as ‘horrible’. According to Sellaro, Argentinians’ purchasing power has weakened to the point that even “El día de las Madres” (“The Day of the Mothers”, a deeply felt holiday which occurs every year on the third Sunday of October,) proved to be a “non-event.” Argentine’s weak economy is also creating trade tensions with Brazil, as Buenos Aires is the second largest export market for Argentinian shoes. According to a memo from Abicalçados, the Brasilian Shoe Manufactures Association, provocatively titled “Argentina decided to give us a headache”, Buenos Aires custom control would deliberately delay the granting of licenses to carioca operators in order to obstruct the arrival of Brazilian’s products on the local market. However, Argentine’s entire leather chain is experiencing a crisis. Overall, the meat industry is not performing well. Last September has seen the reduction in the head of cattle with only 950,000 animals, registering a -13% from the previous year, and -8% if compared to last August numbers. Some of the causes of these problems are linked to industrial action. However, major concerns were caused by a decline in availability bringing the President of the Argentine Exporters Consortium, Mario Ravettino, to label the situation as a ‘serious crisis’. According to Sauer Report, despite the decline of slaughterings, leather’s price is decreasing in price because of local tanneries seeking discounts and longer times for payments.
Argentine: crisis for the leather and meat sector. Shoe market and slaughtering collapse, while tensions with Brazil increase
