T
Portugal is, without a doubt, the best chance for nearshoring in the textile sector, assured Alexandra Araújo, from the ATP board, at the conference on ‘Resilience and regenerative supply chains’, held in Munich and promoted by ISPO. On the table was an issue that became incandescent with the Covid pandemic and aggravated by the war in Ukraine: how to avoid future disruptions in supply chains caused by events that companies cannot control and that from one moment to the next force them to stop production?
“The just-in-time system adopted by the automotive industry has proven to be very efficient, but as we have seen, it is extremely vulnerable to unexpected shocks. The answer to this fragility lies in the constitution of safety stocks and a bet on nearshoring. Of course, this will make production more expensive, but we have to prepare for this inevitability”, warned Oliver Ouboter, CEO of Micro-Mobility Systems.
“Brands have to rethink where they shop if they want their orders delivered on time”, added Alexandra Araújo.
When the great question of the relationship between price and value entered the discussion, Miguel Mendes, from A. Sampaio, resolved the matter in one sentence: “Price and value are different things. When they match, there is a sale”.
“Nearshoring and quality are just two sides of what is currently at stake. It is also necessary to observe values such as transparency, traceability, and respect for the environment. All this is easy to obtain in Portugal. Since 2007, sustainability has been a daily concern. 100% of the energy we use is renewable”, concludes Miguel Mendes.