Good start to the year for Spanish shoes

ELCHE’S footwear sector has ended the best start to a year since 2001, achieving an increase of 10.2 per cent in the number of pairs sold and 18.4 per cent in total value.
According to the quarterly report of the Federation of Spanish Footwear Industries (FICE) a total of 46.6 million pairs of shoes have been exported, totalling €869 million.
The main destination of exports of the sector is France, with 23 per cent of the total share, followed by Italy, Germany, Portugal, UK and Belgium. According to the data handled by FICE, exports to the European Union (EU) represent 80 per cent of industry sales in international markets.
However, there has been a decline of 9.22 per cent in exports to Japan, compared to the first quarter of 2014.