UAE : Expo Riva Schuh to exhibit footwear & leather accessories

Expo Riva Schuh Middle East will be held from 17 to 19 February 2008 at the Expo Centre Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, just a few kilometres from Dubai. This is a new event dedicated entirely to footwear and leather accessories.
The appointment is fruit of an agreement between Riva del Garda Fierecongressi Spa and the Expo Centre Sharjah, aiming to launch a totally new event in the Middle East in a sector that so far has not had its own entirely dedicated event.
Backed by the experience of Expo Riva Schuh, the trade fair dedicated to the medium footwear segment held twice a year in Riva del Garda, which represents one of the major international crossroads in the footwear business for volume products, Riva del Garda Fierecongressi SpA has decided to invest in a project with great potential.
“This partnership with Expo Centre Sharjah is important because it is the first agreement of this kind in the Middle East, with a foreign fair dedicated exclusively to the world of leather”, comments Giovanni Laezza, Director of Riva del Garda Fierecongressi SpA.
For Expo Riva Schuh this initiative is an opportunity to approach new markets and put its trade fair know-how at the service of local buyers. The Middle Eastern market represents a very interesting trade frontier with great potential for the sector of footwear and accessories in leather.
“Suffice to consider that there is maximum consumer demand on Arab markets,” continues Giovanni Laezza, “above all as far as the medium footwear segment is concerned, where Expo Riva Schuh holds international leadership. With practically inexistent local production, they have seen an increase in imports, due above all to growth in the population and in the tourist sector."

The economic growth of the United Arab Emirates and the evolution in taste of consumers make Expo Riva Schuh Middle East the ideal point of encounter between demand and supply. The Emirates, especially Sharjah, with its strategic geographic position and an impressive trade fair, is the perfect place for hosting an event like Expo Riva Schuh Middle East.
“This new event will target a wider market than just the United Arab Emirates", continues the Director, Laezza, “aiming at an overall market of 24 countries in the MENA Region".
The figures speak for themselves; Expo Riva Schuh Middle East is collocated in an area with strong economic growth (the GDP shows an average rise of 6% in real terms), thanks to lively industrial production and investments in civil and commercial infrastructures for tourism, the latter increasingly rapidly too.
The local footwear industry is not developed and has a production capacity of just over 250,000 pairs a year. Against which the domestic market of the countries in the gulf area is estimated at around one billion euros with considerable annual growth.
This demand is made up of three elements: on the one hand consumers in the area have a per capita consumption of 4/5 pairs per year, in other words similar to that of western countries (5/6 pairs per capita per year). In second place, growth of the population and evolution of consumption has led to a natural growth in demand and in the market, which is also fuelled by the growing presence of elite tourism, targeted by heavy investment by this country.