After the sharp drop experienced during the two-year period of 2014/2015, Italian footwear sales towards the former Soviet Bloc, triggered by a rebound in sales in Russia and Ukraine, began to go down a path of recovery, registering +13.2% in quantity in 2016 and a further +25.8% during the first quarter of 2017.  Certainly, there is still a long way to go on the road to recovering lost shares, but the outlook for the future is good:  in this context, it is even more strategic for Italian companies to participate in the  two workshops organized by Assocalzaturifici in the second and third ranking markets of the CIS area:  Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

The first appointment in chronological order is with Shoes from Italy Almaty, the economic capital of Kazakhstan.  At its new location of Hotel Rixos, from 11 to 13 October, the B2B event will accordingly bring Italian footwear and leather goods manufacturers together with buyers from a market that has a high potential for development (at the last edition there were more than 200).  It is a customer base that must be safeguarded, while waiting for a full recovery from the recession and a demand that returns to the levels of 2013, when 600 thousand pairs were exported for a value of 45 million-plus euros.

Shoes from Italy Kiev will instead be held on 7 and 8 November at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in the Ukraine capital, representing an excellent bridge to this promising market for small and medium-sized Italian businesses.  Made in Italy in Ukraine also returns to a trend of growth:  in 2016, Italian exports began a phase of recovery, with an upswing of +44.2% in volume and +30% in value, for a total of 48 million euros, 650 thousand pairs sold, and an average price that ranks among the highest in the end markets for Made in Italy.  This trend was reconfirmed during the first quarter of 2017, when a further +12% was registered in both volume and value.  With these numbers, there are very high expectations for Shoes from Italy Kiev. 

Both events are organized in collaboration with the ICE Agency:  in fact, the offices of Almaty and Kiev collaborate with Assocalzaturifici by organizing direct mailings and incoming services for buyers in support of the business done by Italian companies.