Rising imports keep European shoemakers under pressure

摘要

As a result EU countries are getting a smaller slice of the cake with rising imports, particularly of leather footwear, keeping the European footwear industry under pressure. Speaking at the March edition of the GDS shoe exhibition in Duesseldorf, he said that the 15 countries making up Europe's shoe industry boasted 13,000 facilities with a workforce of some 300,000. But both totals were shrinking and Europe's production of just under 1.01 billion pairs in 1999 was just under 4% down on 1998.