Latin American footwear summit in Italy
On June 13, 2026, Riva del Garda will add an unprecedented meeting to its agenda for Latin American industry leaders. Within the framework of Expo Riva Schuh y Gardabags, the LATAM Footwear Leaders Summit will be held, replacing Argentina as the host this year and taking place in Riva del Garda. The initiative will be promoted by the Association of Footwear Chambers of Latin America (ACCAL) together with the trade fair organization.
For the first time, the meeting will bring together the top representatives of footwear associations from 12 countries in the region: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. The aim will be to outline a shared course of action in response to the demands of the international market.
The participation of this delegation will also have visibility within the event’s general program. The presidents will tour the trade fair accompanied by the organizers and will be present at specific moments of the event, such as the celebration evening, the Sunday activity focused on the Latin American market and the startup competition scheduled for Monday.
In this way, the summit will be integrated into a platform where business, institutional representation and projection spaces for the industry converge.
Organized by Riva del Garda Fierecongressi SpA, Expo Riva Schuh and Gardabags is presented as a highly relevant international trade fair focused on volume footwear, leather goods and accessories.
Its slogan, “Crafting the future of footwear,” supports a commercial positioning that already links manufacturers and buyers from Europe and Latin America within the same business environment.
This connection is reflected in the event’s recent figures. Records show the attendance of more than 100 buyers from Mercosur across the past three editions, while more than 30 exhibitors from South America took part in the latest trade fair, showcasing their proposals.
On that basis, holding the Latin American summit in Riva del Garda takes on a concrete commercial framework: the exhibition already functions as a space of connection between both continents.
This is also the context for the reference to the agreement between the European Union and Mercosur, made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. The agreement provides that exporters from the European bloc will save around € 4 billion annually, as more than 90% of products will be exempt from tariffs.
Although the implementation of the agreement will be provisional from May 1, 2026, the trade fair has already established itself as a point of access to direct commercial relationships, distribution networks and alternatives for diversifying supply chains.
As the organization points out, “treaties take time; opportunities do not wait.” Therefore, rather than waiting for a tariff reduction, the challenge will be to build a competitive position with a sustained focus on internationalization.
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