Global footwear production stabilised in 2025, edging up by just 0.1% to 24.6 billion pairs, while Asia accounted for 88.7% of the total, Europe lost market share, and Portugal ranked as the 18th-largest producer.
According to data from the World Footwear Yearbook 2026 released today by the Portuguese Footwear, Components and Leather Goods Manufacturers’ Association (APICCAPS), this development “confirms Asia’s dominance” in global footwear production. China remains in the lead, producing 13.7 billion pairs and holding a 55.6% share, followed by India with 3.0 billion and Vietnam with 1.7 billion.
Europe, meanwhile, “is assuming an increasingly secondary role” in global production, accounting for just 2.1% of the total, behind South America, with 4.5%, and Africa, with 3.3%. Nevertheless, the association notes, “the European continent retains its relevance in higher value-added segments and in international distribution networks.”
Against this backdrop of a strong concentration of production in Asia, APICCAPS highlights that “Portugal has maintained a significant industrial position,” producing 74 million pairs in 2025 and ranking 18th worldwide.
In 2025, the country exported 69 million pairs, worth $1.949 billion (approximately €1.718 billion at the exchange rate for the reference period), and imported 68 million pairs, worth $981 million (around €844 million), thereby recording a trade surplus of nearly $968 million (around €833 million).
More than half of Portuguese exports by volume, 58%, consisted of leather footwear, “confirming the country’s positioning in higher value-added segments,” it points out.
APICCAPS also notes that the Portuguese industry has pulled ahead of its Spanish competitor on the production side, manufacturing 14 million more pairs, whilst Spain produced 60 million pairs, exported 164 million and imported 365 million, resulting in a trade deficit of more than $2 billion.
These figures, it emphasises, “highlight the growing prominence of Spanish imports and re-exports, whilst Portugal maintains a stronger industrial base and a positive trade balance.” For the association’s president, Portugal’s performance “demonstrates that it is possible to maintain a competitive industry in Europe, even in the face of very strong global competition.”
“Portugal continues to invest consistently in industry, innovation, technology, skills and production capacity. The 74 million pairs produced in 2025 and the trade surplus of nearly $1 billion demonstrate that there is a solid and competitive industrial base”, states Luís Onofre, stressing that “this capability did not arise by chance,” but “is the result of decades of investment and a permanent commitment to modernisation.”
Data from the World Footwear Yearbook also indicate that, in 2025, global exports fell by 0.1% in volume but rose by 1.6% in value, reaching $172 billion (around €147 billion). The average export price recovered to $11.65 per pair, still below the peak of $11.96 reached in 2023.
For Luís Onofre, these figures “confirm a reality that demands a firm response from Europe,” and the fact that global footwear production is increasingly concentrated in Asia “cannot entail a concentration of opportunities or of the rules of international trade.”
“We cannot accept that the concentration of production in Asia should result in a concentration of world trade and a loss of European industrial capacity. Europe must defend its interests and ensure that free trade is also balanced trade, based on fair and reciprocal conditions of competition,” he maintains.
According to the World Footwear Yearbook, Asia also maintains a dominant position in international trade, accounting for 84.3% of exported pairs.
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Source: uk.fashionnetwork.com
