Porto, Portugal, June 22, 2026 (Lusa) - Figures recently presented at the conference "Bioeconomy in Motion: How Portugal is Shaping Europe’s Sustainable Future", the European Footwear Industry Confederation (CEC) argues that “circularity will be one of the key factors driving competitiveness for the sector in the coming years”.
According to the Portuguese Association of Footwear, Components, Leather Goods and Substitutes Manufacturers (APICCAPS), which organised the conference in Brussels, European Union (EU) countries import around 1,980 million pairs of shoes annually. Given that each pair weighs an average of 616 grams, this volume corresponds to 1.22 million tonnes of potential waste, “a quantity equivalent to the weight of thousands of large commercial aeroplanes”.
As the association points out, these figures “reveal the scale of the environmental challenge associated with footwear consumption in Europe and underscore the need to accelerate the transition towards more sustainable and circular models”.
At a time when Brussels is tightening environmental requirements for the fashion and footwear industry, promoting measures that encourage product durability, recycling of materials and reduction of waste throughout the value chain – the CEC emphasises that these figures “demonstrate the urgency of developing solutions that extend the life cycle of products and increase the use of sustainable materials”.
At the conference held on the 16th June, the European Commissioner for Economy and Productivity, Valdis Dombrovskis, cited the Portuguese footwear industry as an example of how Europe can strengthen its competitiveness through innovation, sustainability and a focus on quality, highlighting the results achieved by the “BioShoes4All” project.
In a message delivered in Brussels by Arnolds Eizensmits, a member of the office of the Commissioner responsible for Portugal, Dombrovskis emphasised that the footwear sector demonstrates European industry’s ability to compete in international markets “not by being the cheapest, but by being better and more reliable”.
“The footwear sector in Portugal forms part of the country’s industrial identity. It brings together skilled workers, family-run businesses, exporters, designers, technology centres, researchers and suppliers,” he said, adding that Portuguese industry has shown “a remarkable ability to adapt” to the new demands of global markets.
The European official also highlighted the role of “BioShoes4All”, which supports areas “directly linked to future competitiveness”, such as biomaterials, resource efficiency, digital tools, waste enhancement and the link between research and industry.
“This is the kind of investment Europe needs,” he argued.
In this regard, the president of APICCAPS, Luís Onofre, considered that “the current European model is not sustainable”, which is why the Portuguese footwear sector has sought to lead this transformation through innovation projects linked to biomaterials, the reuse of waste and new, more efficient production processes.
“Whilst many are debating the future, we have chosen to build it,” stated Luís Onofre, arguing that Portugal is demonstrating, in practice, how European reindustrialisation can take place: “Europe talks about reindustrialisation. Portugal is making it happen,” he added.
At a time when the EU is seeking to reduce external dependencies, strengthen strategic value chains and rebuild industrial capacity, the Portuguese experience was presented as a concrete example of how industry remains part of the solution.
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