U.S.-China trade war raises 6.4% exports of the footwear sector of Franca, SP

The footwear industries of Franca (SP), one of the main poles of shoe production in the country, recorded a 6.4% increase in export volume, according to data recently released by the Union of the Footwear Industry of Franca (Sindifranca). The survey shows that in September, the factories took $5.759 million abroad. Since January, the increase - which is contrary to the 12% drop in Brazilian industry - is the third in a row in closed businesses outside the country. Still, in the accumulated 2019 exports led to a 2.4% decline over 2018, with a total of US$ 50.564 million. An amount that is moving towards being the worst in the historical series recorded since 1993, when factories raised $256,504,904.00 from exports. Fiscal war The punctual highs, in the assessment of the president of Sindifranca, José Carlos Brigagão do Couto, are related to the trade war between the United States and China. According to him, the Brazilian product became, at least at first, an alternative to the Americans. "Exports are currently concentrated in the United States as a result of the United States' fight with China. Obviously, with the imposition of higher rates on exports from China to the United States, this favored Brazil in this sense and obviously footwear. So American buyers are turning attention to Brazil," he says. The annual export balance sheet shows that the United States is the main trading partner of Franca's shoe factories and concentrates nearly half of the revenue obtained through international business in 2019: it is $20,815,995.00, equivalent to 41% of the total export volume of the city in this sector, which represents an increase of 34.6% compared to the same period in 2018. Following, South American countries led by Argentina and Chile appear, respectively with US$ 3,598,896.00 and US$ 3,433,358.00. Export director of a factory that produces 800 pairs a day, João Xavier also believes that the exchange rate - with the Brazilian currency down - and the search for quality boosted business. "We imagine that the biggest scenario that made the difference was the price of the dollar, which is now favorable. It's an indispensable scenario in the price fight. Then we have this specialized workforce. The shoe always comes out with much higher quality and then it's quality, it's not just price fight," he says. In the Assessment of Brigagão do Couto, the increase in exports should continue until 2020, although it does not seem to sustain itself in the long term. "This is an economic struggle and has a political factor in the middle, but as to be able to export if it takes more than a year to close exports, I think for 2020 yes will continue to grow," he says. Job creation The increase in the volume of exports, on the other hand, is not enough by itself to ensure more vacancies in the industry, which this year reaches its lowest number of employees and in recent years has allocated around 90% of its production to the domestic market. Between August and September, the total number of workers in the sector went from 17,800 to 18,200, indicating brief recovery, but still well below the levels already recorded by the factories, as in October 2013, when the units came to employ more than 30,000 Employees. "If [federal government] reforms are implemented as soon as possible we believe that we can have an increase in employment. We have 12,000 unemployed in Franca in the footwear sector, we had a small improvement in September, but it is not sustainable, we are still out of place with the number of our jobs in relation to the seasonality that occurred in November and December 2018 and we are not we were able to replenish this workforce," he says.