Figure 2 Number of pairs of shoes required as OPT, selected districts (1996-2000)
Note: Barletta has no significant outsourcing of final processing in any of the years considered.
Source: elaborated on OPT data by ANCI (2001)
As regards partner countries for intermediate processing, there appears to be a
rather high concentration of imported intermediate items from a bunch of Eastern
European countries (Table 2). In Veneto, the preferred partner country for intermediate
processing is Romania. The composition of partner countries for intermediate
processing is much less concentrated for footwear firms located in Marche, who share
their outsourcing of parts between Romania and Bulgaria. The opposite occurs for
footwear firms located in Puglia, who almost exclusively outsource intermediate
processing to Albania (Table 2).
As regards partner countries for final processing, Romania is by far the preferred
location for final processing required by footwear firms in Veneto: Treviso has been
outsourcing mainly to Romania during all the years considered, and also partly but not
continuously to Albania and Croazia, and only recently has started to delocalise to
Asian countries. Riviera del Brenta used to delocalise towards Ucraina in the mid-
1990s, and then switched to Romania since 1999, from where more than 75% of pairs of
shoes were imported as OPT in 2000. Verona has delocalised final processing mostly to
Romania except in 1997 and 2000, when it started to diversify its partner countries
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