Consejo Sectorial

Both, the footwear industry such as leather goods, composed of a series of industrial and manufacturing activities that aims, given an initial design, processing sequentially, a number of raw materials to obtain a final product , which involved labor intensive. Both industries share characteristics, in production, because use of similar raw materials and components (leather, adhesives, hardware, etc.) in output (process design, cutting, stitching, etc.) and marketing, especially in the fashion segment, being both complementary clothing. The footwear industry is integrated with approximately 85 companies from other shoe manufacturers and shoe supplies. It is estimated that the sector employs approximately 1,500 people directly. Existing businesses only 15 employ more than 50 workers. Footwear production is currently estimated at about 1 million pairs, where 800 thousand correspond to leather shoes. Almost all of this production is for domestic market. The leather industry is reduced to 24 and 30 small companies, 6 with an industrial structure and the rest are small workshops. The representative products are: bags and purses, wallets and belts, although there are some companies whose main business comes from the "corporate gifts". The export performance is more important than footwear, as several companies export between 30% and 40% of its production, but does not reach this level.