“How long should we complain and beg for support? How many letters should we write to governments and speak at meetings? “We started from ourselves,” Mr. Alireza Jabbarian Fam, president of the Tabriz Shoe Manufacturers’ Union, told the Shahrvand newspaper. Someone who has now made a big move in the Tabriz shoe market.
These days, in the Tabriz shoe market, many stores have hung a small sign in their shop, with the theme: “We proudly sell only Iranian goods.” This small sign has set up a revolution in Tabriz Bazaar. Now, two stores in the shoe capital of Iran have joined hands to sell nothing but Iranian shoes and save the crisis-ridden domestic market from foreign shoes and smuggling. This initiative of Tabrizi has been extended to other cities of East Azarbaijan province and Maragheh, Shabestari, Marandi and Azarshahri have also joined this spontaneous movement of Tabriz markets. The initial idea of the design came to the mind of Alireza Jabarian, the president of the Tabriz Shoe Manufacturers Union.
“The young man is optimistic and has a national sweat,” Mr. Nasser Hajhashemi, head of the country’s machine shoe manufacturers’ union, told Shahrvand. “If there are a few people like him who work to support national production, the Japanese Industrial Revolution will undoubtedly be repeated in Iran.” He says he is heartbroken that the manufacturer must sell high-quality Iranian shoes to his compatriots with Turkish shoe labels. Then the same customer comes and asks, “Where has the work been?” At the same time, he should be asked: “No entrepreneurship, what have you done to support employment?”
Mr. Hashemi has a shop in Chaharsoo hall in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar and says, “I have not sold a single pair of foreign shoes in all my years of activity.” People are more upset that people are willing to tear a few pairs of substandard Chinese shoes a year, but do not restrict the market importer. Do not get into a crisis.
** The Chinese took over the shoe capital
According to the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Trade, Iranians consume 1 million pairs of shoes annually, of which 2 to 1 million pairs are imported from abroad. Of course, industry activists do not accept these figures and believe that the high share of shoe smuggling has been ignored. If we consider the high tariff on the import of shoes into the country, we can easily see that the activists in the shoe industry are not so misguided, and the high tariff increases the motivation of smugglers.
The import tariff on shoes in the year ٧٥ was equal to 5%, which was increased to 3% in order to reduce smuggling, but Chinese shoes are still circulating in the Iranian market, which due to high import tariffs and low prices of these shoes can easily understand the share of smuggling. It has a large market share of shoes. Of course, the Chinese are not the only uninvited guests in the Iranian shoe market, and shoes from Turkey, Vietnam and Korea have also established their foothold in Iran for several years.
Mr. Hamidreza Matin, head of the Hamadan Province Industry, Mining and Trade Organization, confirmed the claim of the shoe industry activists and told the Journalists’ Club; About 100 percent of the Iranian shoe market is owned by the Chinese, because in many cases Chinese shoes are marked with the name of Iranian shoes.
The rise of the Chinese in the market, which has repeatedly raised the voice of shoe manufacturers, has now led to the widespread closure of shoe production units in Tabriz. According to the Tabriz Shoemakers’ Union, Chinese shoes have shut down 2 percent of Tabriz’s 2,000 handmade shoe factories, and now only three shoe factories are active in the Iranian shoe capital.
** We started from ourselves
Mr. Alireza Jabbarian Fam, the president of the Tabriz Shoe Manufacturers Union, is driving and I am calling him. He wants to park somewhere short and talk about his idea. He says he has been thinking about how long they will grumble and ask and write letters to governments? He decides to start a big movement himself and thinks that in a mass movement with the participation of Tabriz bazaars, they will circle the sale of foreign shoes and from now on offer only Iranian shoes.
He describes how this great work began: A month ago, I sent a union inspector to the market, and it was set up to identify sellers who sell only Iranian shoes. We designed a sign for these sellers with the phrase “We proudly sell only Iranian goods” and made it available to them.
He continues: “With the start of this movement, a number of markets that sold foreign shoes also joined us and decided to support Iranian production by removing foreign goods from their shops.”
Every week, the number of markets that support Iranian production is increasing, so much so that within a month, Tabriz stores have joined hands to complete a major action to support national production. Jabbarian says; In the same short period of time, three cities of the province have joined the collective movement of Tabriz markets, and the shoe manufacturers of Khorasan province, who are aware of this movement, have announced their support for the movement of Tabrizis and said that they will implement this project in their province soon.
Mr. Jabbarian tells “Shahrvand”: “About one thousand families live directly and one thousand indirectly from the shoe industry, and if we as sellers and consumers can support them, the Iranian shoe industry will earn more families and Iranians with The special capabilities they have in this industry can easily become one of the major exporters of shoes in the world.
Turkey closed its doors on Iranian shoes
“Turkey feels Iran as a dangerous competitor,” the head of the Tabriz Shoe Manufacturers’ Union told Shahrvand. “Importers label Iranian shoes on Chinese shoes so they can sell them in the domestic market.”
But his example of the quality of Iranian shoes does not end there. Only one percent tariff is applied for the import of Chinese shoes.
According to Jabbarian, this shows that Turkey sees Iran as a major competitor to its producers and has therefore imposed heavy tariffs on Iranian shoe imports.
Now the people of Tabriz are not content with this important move and are designing an export consortium that can export high quality Iranian shoes to Kenya, the UAE, Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan.
“People who are not willing to do something for themselves should not expect others to do something for them,” Jabbarian told Shahrvand. Therefore, I call on all Iranian consumers to take the initiative to support our own production, to support our country’s businesses, and to create wealth in Iran, and to buy only Iranian goods.
He emphasizes; If we do not consider the quality of Iranian goods to be appropriate, it is because many producers are operating in difficult and difficult conditions.
In many cases, illegal imports and smuggling have hit their businesses, and if people support and empower their national product in a collective movement, there are many producers who can produce with high quality standards and create jobs for other people.
Now, with all its potential in shoe production, Iran has become a ground for illegal imports and smuggled shoes. According to Iranian customs, it earns about $ 1 million a year from shoe exports, while Turkey earns twice as much from the Iraqi shoe market alone. The great wealth that the shoe industry, with the support of consumers, can easily go to the pockets of the people of our country and employ many Iranians.
The Dalir Leather Industries also supports this campaign and is a member of this campaign.
