APICCAPS

Portuguese Footwear, Components, Leather Goods Manufacturers’ Association

APICCAPS represents the Portuguese Footwear Cluster, which includes three key industries: footwear, footwear components, and leather goods. More than 1.600 companies employ over 40.000 workers.

In 2022, the Portuguese footwear industry reached new records for production (€2.3 billion) and exports (more than €2 billion). Exports accounted for more than 90% of production, reflecting the industry’s strong focus on the international markets.

Portuguese footwear exports experienced a remarkable increase of 20,2% from the previous year, and a 12,6% growth compared to pre-pandemic levels (2019). Over the past decade, the export growth has exceeded 25%, driven by the high value of Portuguese footwear.

During this period, the average export price of Portuguese footwear increased by 13,8%, to €26,40 per pair, while the quantity exported grew by 7,8%.

www.apiccaps.pt

FAIST project: Portuguese footwear industry investment to be the most modern in the world

The Portuguese footwear industry aims to “become an international benchmark and strengthen its exports, combining virtuously sophistication and creativity with productive efficiency, based on the technological development and management of the international

value chain, thus ensuring the future of a national production basis, sustainable, and highly competitive”. This is the vision outlined in the Strategic Plan of the Footwear Cluster 2030.

To that end, the Cluster brought together 45 partners and, in a project coordinated by the Portuguese Footwear Technological Centre (CTCP), is developing the intelligent factory of the future. The FAIST project — Agile, Intelligent, Sustainable and Technological Factory — involves an investment of 50 million euros, under the Recovery and Resiliency Plan (RRP), in the field of Mobilization Agendas, and has as its main goal to provide and empower this industry with innovative technologies, processes and sustainable materials, increasing the responsiveness to market demands and continuing making the Portuguese footwear and leather goods industry the most modern in the world. The consortium is technically coordinated by CTCP and the co-promoters are footwear and leather goods companies (14), component companies (9), companies of technological basis (15) and entities from the scientific and technological interface (6).