Italy’s top footwear brands go to a market with a particular preference for Italian shoes, the CIS, with two more events bringing together supply and demand in this vast area. After Obuv’ Mir Koži in Moscow, Assocalzaturifici continues to protect and promote the Italian footwear industry in the area, going to Kazakhstan for Shoes from Italy Almaty, the key event in the Euro-Asian footwear market, coming up at the Rixos Hotel in Almaty from October 31 through November 2 2018.

The event represents an essential business opportunity for the sector’s professionals from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. All the best Italian brands will be there: Accademia, Aldo Bruè, Anpel, Baldinini, Braccialini, C Project, Code Prive’, Camerlengo Laboratorio Artigianale, Cherie Love, Cherie, Fabiani, Fabio Di Luna, Florens, Francesco V., Francesco Sacco, Gallotti, Giampiero Nicola, Gianfranco Butteri, Gianmarco Lorenzi, Gianni Renzi Couture, Giorgio Fabiani, Giovanni Fabiani, Good Man, Greencoast, Ilasio Renzoni, Inblu, Kelton, Lancaster, Le Babe, Lucaguerrini, Luigi Traini, Marino Fabiani, Mario Bruni, Miss Blumarine Shoes, Nila & Nila, Pakerson, Phil Gatier, Pollini, Repo, Ripani, Sandra Valeri, Sara Kent, Tine’s, William Massimi.

The event has always played an important role as a promotional hub for the entire Central Asian market thanks to the buyer search and selection activity that is carried out jointly with ITA Almaty. Indeed, this edition will feature an influx of 60 selected buyers from the CIS and all provinces of Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan is the second-largest market in the area, after Russia, in terms of GDP. Italian exports to Kazakhstan amounted to 338 thousand pairs of shoes in 2017, worth 24.8 million euros, a 6.9% increase in value. Italy exported 192 thousand pairs of shoes to Kazakhstan in the first half of 2018, worth 11.4 million euros.

After Kazakhstan, Italian footwear will go on show again in Ukraine with Shoes From Italy Kiev, in the capital’s Hyatt Regency Hotel on 7-8 November 2018, a b2b workshop organised in partnership with ITA Kiev for footwear and leather goods manufacturing companies. It represents the main means of access to the Ukrainian market for many of the sector’s small and medium enterprises.

The event will showcase the following brands: Accademia, Alessandro Collection Italy, Angi & Angi, Bagatto, Camerlengo, Gianfranco Butteri, Gianni Renzi – Gianmarco Lorenzi, Giorgio Fabiani, GNV Giampiero Nicola, Kelton, Lab-Milano, Marino Fabiani, Mario Bruni, Nila & Nila, Pakerson, Repo/La Repo, Quarzovivo, Pianeta – Tine’s, Vittorio Virgili.

The participation of all these brands, representing the utmost expression of Italian style and workmanship, testifies to Ukraine’s strong interest in quality manufacturing. The workshop will also have an incoming buyer programme involving about 30 companies from the Ukrainian regions.

Italy exported 652 thousand pairs of shoes to Ukraine in 2017, 0.6% more than in 2016. 338 thousand pairs of shoes were exported to Kiev in the first six months of 2018, worth 22 million euros.

“We are opening the doors of our b2b events in Almaty and Kiev at a complicated time on these markets,” comments Marino Fabiani, the adviser responsible for Assocalzaturifici activities in the CIS area. “Currency tension has weakened consumers’ spending power. We are also seeing political uncertainty in the months leading up to the March elections in Ukraine, so we cannot expect to see particularly brilliant trends in purchasing at the moment. In Kazakhstan, the weak currency is inevitably reflected in a credit crunch which is affecting our clientele; the figures reveal a slight drop in the value of exports, 1.1% in the first half of 2018. But these two markets are extremely important nonetheless, the second and third in the area, respectively, in terms of both volume and value. Our association will continue to invest in promotion of Italian footwear, which remains very attractive to buyers in the area”.

ASSOCALZATURIFICI ITALIANI Via Alberto Riva Villasanta, 3 I-20145 Milan Tax Code 80027170150 Telephone + 39 02 43829.1 Fax + 39 02 48005833 stampa@assocalzaturifici.it www.assocalzaturifici.it