China Is The Largest Footwear Consumer In The World.

Reporters yesterday learned that the Eighteenth International Footwear, leather and industrial equipment exhibition, known as "Asia's first international shoe exhibition", will be held on 28-31 March at the Pazhou Exhibition Hall of China Import and Export Fair.

More than 900 footwear and related enterprises from 35 countries and regions in five continents have joined the exhibition. The exhibition will reach 60 thousand square meters, 20% larger than last year's scale.

At the same time, the reporter learned from the press conference that at present, China consumes nearly 2 billion 300 million pairs of shoes every year, which has exceeded 2 billion 200 million pairs in the United States, and has just replaced the United States as the world's largest consumer of shoe products.

Reporters learned from the organizers of the exhibition that although the growth rate of China's footwear exports to Europe and the US market has declined in recent years, but based on the strong development potential of China and even the Asian shoe market and the growth trend of the global shoe market, this year, enterprises in 14 countries and regions including Brazil, Bangladesh, Germany, Italy, Korea, Pakistan, Spain, Thailand, Portugal, Mexico, Turkey, and Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan will participate in the exhibition and increase the display area.

According to the Guangdong footwear industry association, the domestic footwear industry has faced many unfavorable factors such as the export tax rebate reduction, the appreciation of RMB against the US dollar, the rising price of raw materials and the tight energy supply in the past two years, and the cost pressure of enterprises has increased.

However, China's footwear exports still maintain a relatively high growth rate.

According to the State General Administration of customs, the total value of China's export footwear commodities from 2008 to April was $8 billion 480 million, an increase of 11.6% over the same period last year.

It is reported that China has become the largest footwear producer in the world, and the footwear industry in Guangdong is close to half the country's output.

It is reported that Guangdong's footwear exports last year were about US $9 billion 580 million, an increase of about 13% over 2006.