Shoes take bigger slice of Brazilian exports
Leather and footwear have been steadily increasing their share of the Brazilian trade balance in recent years. According to the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC), during January-June 2003 the country's manufactured product exports rose 22%, with shoes taking a 2.34% share of the category at $771 million.
By comparison, automobiles accounted for 3.42% at $1.1 billion, aircraft 2.8% at $924 million and automobile engines 2.52% at $834 million. Of the country’s total product exports, manufactured goods accounted for 53% at $17.7 billion followed by commodities ($9.62 billion) and ‘industrialised semi-manufactured goods’ ($5 billion), with the latter accounting for a 15% share of all exports. Hides and skins were included in these, accounting for 1.54% of the category or $506 million, the others being wood pastes ($839 million/2.54%), iron and steel semi-manufactured products ($779 million/2.36%), and cane sugar ($485 million/1.47%).
