The Philippines has a long history of shoe production. Renowned for its Marikina footwear industry the country was a major shoe exporter to the USA and other countries in the mid 1980s. In 1997 its shoe exports earned nearly $200 million. Today, the industry is yielding under the Chinese competition.
Chinese shoe factories churn out more than 5 billion pairs of shoes annually and control half the global market. More than a billion pairs are sold to the USA alone each year, where Chinese-made shoes account for roughly 80% of all footwear imports.
Although Marikina still has 600 registered shoemakers most of them are tiny outfits making shoes with hand tools and outdated equipment. The Needs Footwear Co. employed 30 people five years ago and made 1,000 pairs of shoes a week. Today production is down to 400 pairs a week and there are only four to 10 workers in the factory, depending on orders. Unable to compete, many Philippine factories have shut and exports are steadily falling.
Roger Py, executive director of the Philippine Footwear Federation, says cost is the big issue as no one can match the Chinese in terms of price, especially as wages in the Philippines (about $150 a month) are double those in China. "China can produce cheaply," adds Py, "because they make all product components themselves." As a result, many of the country's best shoe designers have moved to China.
Leonida Quirante, the owner of Needs, contends that the Chinese are "dumping" their shoes on the market at illegally low prices. She and other shoemakers want the government to start imposing duties on Chinese imports. But that is unlikely and the future of the industry looks very uncertain.
