[ad_1]
The “courage” and “resistance” of the 33 Portuguese footwear companies participating in the largest fair of the sector, in Milan, Italy, contrasts today with the small number of visitors to the event, whose first day was a shadow of previous editions .
During a visit to the Portuguese delegation, the Undersecretary of State for the Economy, João Neves, acknowledged that this edition of the fair is “different from any other”, but highlighted “the importance of the presence of a very significant number of Portuguese companies. [33], in very difficult circumstances ”.
Devaluing the weight loss of the national delegation in the global context of “significant decrease” in the total number of exhibitors and expected visitors, João Neves preferred to highlight the “resistance capacity” of the participants and the fact that “who attends a fair like this comes to do business and not to see market trends, as in other editions it may have happened ”.
“That is why we hope that, from a business point of view, it can be a positive fair,” he said.
Opinion shared by Ambitious ‘brand manager’, Guimarães Celita’s own brand, for whom the presence in this edition of MICAM “is a sign of courage and proximity that should be given to retailers”.
“This season was difficult to plan, but as soon as possible we started our travels again and I have already been on the road for two weeks. Our clients will not be able to travel as much, so we have to be closer to them, ”said the Lusa Pedro Lopes agency.
With exports to 47 markets, many of them outside the EU, the company considers that the absence of buyers from outside Europe, given the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, “is the biggest break” in this edition of the event.
“But that is not why the fair no longer makes sense, especially since Italy is our main market,” he adds.
After having invoiced 20 million euros in 2019, Celita expects to end this year with a drop in sales of “15 to 20%”, with the “best start to the year” that it registered until the pandemic explosion allowed it. It partially offset the month of total stoppage in April and the drop in activity in the remaining months.
Faced with the call by some of the Portuguese industrialists so that the Government does not release support for companies, the Deputy Secretary of State and Economy assumed the executive’s “responsibility” to “have a strong word in support of economic activities.
“We will continue to support employers and workers to maintain companies and jobs”, guaranteed João Neves, attributing the lower adherence of companies to the successive measures of the simplified transitional redundancy regime when the activity is progressively resumed.
Although he admitted an adaptation of the support measures in case of deterioration of the situation, among other things because “the climate is of enormous uncertainty”, the governor almost excluded a return by many defended from the simplified dismissal in the State Budgets for 2021: “I think we are not in that phase,” he said.
The Secretary of State for Internationalization, Eurico Brilhante Dias, who accompanied João Neves on his visit to the Portuguese delegation at MICAM, pointed out that, “despite all the restrictions, the goods sector had a fall of only 7% compared to the month of July year-on-year ”and has been“ progressively reducing the gap ”compared to the previous year.
“Portuguese exporters were crucial for Portugal to emerge from the last crisis. They were, to a large extent, heroes and this time it will be no different, it will be the exporters and these companies that will make Portugal overcome this particularly difficult time around the world ”, he considered.
*** Patrícia Dinis, sent from the Lusa agency ***
*** The journalist traveled at the invitation of the Portuguese Association of Footwear, Components, Leather Goods and Their Substitutes (APICCAPS) ***
[ad_2]
