Automotive leather demand helps drive up Brazilian state’s exports
Together with the state’s burgeoning footwear trade, the company’s activities helped make leather one of the state’s key export commodities, with exports to the US automotive sector accounting for a high proportion of the total.
Exports from Ceara amounted to US$495 million in 2000, with finished leather eclipsing the state's traditional export commodities of cashew nuts, lobsters and carnuaba wax Nevertheless, increases this year are expected to be lower because of the high dollar, interest rates and the energy crisis.
Elsewhere in Brazil, sales of leather shoes helped push up exports from the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul by 20.37% in the first five months of this year, enabling the state achieve a positive balance of payments of $872 million - up 38% year-on-year. Though no further specific figures were obtainable at the time of going to press, it is understood that leather footwear was the largest single export earner.
