Illegal trade grows in crisis and worried about retail and industry

Sao Paulo-the illegal trade of products such as clothes, glasses and toys grew significantly during the crisis, generating concern in retail and industry. In some sectors, the participation of informality in turnover exceeds 30%, impacting directly on the companies ' revenue and in storage.
The illegal sales growth was observed in the glasses, one of the most affected by piracy and smuggling. According to calculations of the Brazilian Association of Optical Industry (Abióptica), informal trade represents 45% of the total market turnover, front piece of 37% in 2013, before the economic recession.
In the field of clothing, the Brazilian Textile retail Association (Abvtex), an organization that represents companies like Renner, C&A and Riachuelo, estimates that the informal sector represents 30% of sales in the sector-in a conservative analysis, more than the participation of members of the entity (24%). President of Abvtex, Edmundo Lima claims that the crisis has stimulated informal trade in two ways: while many Brazilians who have lost their jobs ended up migrating to the illegal sale, consumers were also more susceptible to buy pirate products or smuggled in search for prices. Study of the Federation of trade in goods, services and tourism of Minas Gerais (FecomercioMG) shows that 41% of consumers of Belo Horizonte purchased pirate products in the last 12 months. Of these, 83% said that the main reason which led the purchase was the price.
The growth of illegal sale repeats in the toy sector. According to the Brazilian Association of toy manufacturers (Abrinq) participation of illegality in sales has increased from 2% in 2014 to about 8% this year. "There has been a resurgence of the situation caused essentially by the recession," says the President of Abrinq Synésio Batista da Costa.
The scenario has led associations and companies to strengthen the work of combating illegal trade, for example, pressed the Government for more effective surveillance. The pressure apparently has given a result. In September, a joint action between the IRS and the Federal Police in Sao Paulo, led to the seizure of more than 800 tons of pirated products, in an approximate value of R, and $300 million to the provisional closure of two malls, on March 25 and the Gallery Florencio. Just glasses, according to data sent by the Abióptica to DCI, were more than 2.8 million of seized products. Over 1,250,000 of fashion items were collected in the operation and 380,000 watches.
Role of brands
The products seized in September, one of the highlights was the Quiksilver swimwear articles. The General Director of the company in Brazil, Gustavo Belloc, says that the brand does intensive work in combating piracy of their products, in partnership with the law firm Manning IPC focused on intellectual property.
In the past 12 months ending in July, to give an idea, more than 170,000 pirated products from Quiksilver and DC Shoes (the same group) were seized, according to Meirelles IPC. In addition to intelligence work, the brand will launch at the beginning of next year, holographic labels to facilitate the certification of originality of the item. The idea is to ensure a greater internal control and give more security to the Distributor. "We put on t-shirts first, who are the fake articles" says Belloc.
According to the Executive, the Quiksilver invests every year more than R $100,000 in the work of combating piracy in Brazil. With the implementation of holographic labels the mark will also have to give up the shore, since the cost of production of products will grow.
The impact of illicit trade not only companies. According to the Economist of the Federation of trade in goods, services and tourism of the State of São Paulo (FecomercioSP), Fabio Pina, there is a significant loss for the State, since you lose a significant amount in taxes. He says that the estimate in the market is that R $120 billion are lost in revenue collection by year account of informal trade.
"If we get a multiplier, when you lose 5% of sales for informal trade, also gets lost in taxes and the impact to the economy as a whole ends up being even higher," he says. Even for consumers, complements the Economist, the illegal trade generates large losses, since there is no traceability, or any warranty if the product is bad or come with defects.