In early June, Wenzhou City representatives made two historical visits - one to Elche in Spain to review the impact of shoes imported from China on the local market, and the other to China’s largest domestic sports shoe production centre Jinjiang.

On June 3, officials from Wenzhou government, Wenzhou Footwear and Leather Association and representatives from local famous shoe-making enterprises such as Dongyi, made their first visit to Elche since the Elche incident when imported shoes from Wenzhou were destroyed by local workers. They will stay in Elche until mid-June and before moving on to the GDS fair in Germany to discuss the long-term reservation of booths at the fair.

Over 100 representatives from the Wenzhou leather industry also made their first-ever trip to Jinjiang City from June 2-6 after an invite was received from the government of Jinjiang city. The trip was mainly to investigate Jinjiang’s raw material and accessory market.

The China Leather Industry Association (CLIA) said on its website on June 8 that it had been a very fruitful trip and that several Wenzhou leather companies will now begin working with Jinjiang shoe producers as suppliers.

According to CLIA’s statistics, at present there are over 3,000 shoe manufacturers and over 2,000 shoe-making material firms in Jinjiang. In 2004, annual production in the region reached up to ￥6 billion ($1.95 billion).