As persistent rains in Brazil’s flood-stricken southernmost state show no signs of letting up, sussing out the extent of the damage remains a challenge.
Parts of Rio Grande do Sul have been inundated with more than 25 inches of rain this month alone, according to national weather service INMET. More than half a million people have abandoned their homes in search of higher ground and 147 are confirmed to be dead. Another 127 are reported missing.
Two weeks after a torrential downpour caused the Guaiba River to hit historical peaks, burst its banks and breach the state capital of Porto Alegre, the arrival of fresh bouts of rain is causing its levels to rise again, threatening a deeper and more deadly deluge.
Little, if any, cotton is grown in Rio Grande do Sul, an agricultural hotspot that’s home to a population of 11 million. But the state is a major cattle producer and leather processor, said Silvio Moraes, regional ambassador for Latin America at Textile Exchange. It’s also what he describes as one of the “main national centers” for footwear manufacturing, textile spinning and weaving, and garment manufacturing.
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For the shoe and textile factories that are traditionally located along rivers, “peak crisis” could be an understatement, Moraes said.
“Most of them are in the river basins most affected by the current flood,” he said. “Most of these factories are family businesses that have grown over the last few decades from small ateliers to large factories producing for the national and international market. Almost all of them are located in the interior of the state, in municipalities that have these facilities [as] the basis of their development and job opportunities.”
Indeed, initial surveys by the Federation of Industries of the State of Rio Grande do Sul show that the sectors most affected by the floods are vehicles, machinery, furniture, food and footwear. Across the board, more than 43,000 factories, making up 86.4 percent of the state’s industries, were impacted in some way by the catastrophe.
It’s the individual stories, however, that show the human toll behind the statistics: Calçados Beira-Rio, one of Brazil’s largest footwear manufacturers, had only recently rebuilt one of its factories in the region after previous floods, only to have the same one destroyed again. In Porto Alegre, members of Justa Trama, a women’s cooperative that makes organic cotton textiles and clothing, watched as surges of water battered their homes, with their factory also at risk. The Werner footwear factory in the municipality of Três Coroas remains intact, but its “true foundations,” including employees, were “deeply impacted,” it wrote on Instagram. Calçados Karyby, another shoemaker in Três Coroas, went to work cleaning up its factory and is slowly starting up again.
“We will still have heavy rain in the coming days and the outlook for rising water levels is not good,” Moraes said. “Practically the entire state is in these conditions and the rescue and reconstruction work, which is just beginning in some places, depends a lot on volunteer work and the donations and contributions of everyone who can help.”
A tentative estimate by Open Supply Hub, an open-source platform that maps factories, notes that more than 4,000 fashion-related suppliers are likely in the affected zone. This isn’t the first time they’ve had to cope with unexpected flooding, said Bruna Gomes, its Brazilian country coordinator. What’s happening right now, however, is “worse and stronger.”
“I talked to two friends that work in the footwear sector and have contacts with local suppliers; they say the facilities lost materials, their stock and the employees all lost something, even their houses,” Gomes said. “Cities such as Três Coroas, Igrejinha and Novo Hamburgo, where there are a lot of factories, were heavily affected and…suppliers say that the situation feels like after the war. There are a lot of asks for donations to help the locals and the facilities to be back. As we know, for suppliers, it is already hard to survive in the market, and this situation can be the end of the business for some of them.”
For Brazil’s largest footwear and leather trade groups—the Brazilian Footwear Industries Association (Abicalçados), Brazilian Association of Leather Component, Footwear and Artifacts Companies (Assintecal) and Brazilian Tanning Industry Center (CICB)—recovery is now a priority. Together, they’ve launched Movimento Próximos Passos RS, which translates into “Next Steps RS Movement” in English, to collect donations.
“The goal is to rebuild the leather and footwear ecosystem, prioritizing its most valuable asset: people,” they said. While there isn’t a tally of how many people or families have been affected, their joint rosters cover roughly 3,000 companies and 120,000 direct workers.
“We are a labor-intensive sector,” said Haroldo Ferreira, CEO of Abicalçados. “There are thousands of people who live from the activity. Rebuilding these people’s lives first and foremost is our main goal with the campaign. It is from the dignity and housing conditions of the families that depend on the footwear chain that we will have an entire sector reestablished.”
José Fernando Bello, executive president of CICB said that the industry is “united and committed” to the recovery of Rio Grande do Sul and the leather production that is a “traditional cultural and economic force of the state.”
“The floods have impacted life in this territory, but at the same time they have brought out an immense power of solidarity and cooperation of companies and people,” he said. “We will overcome this challenge together.”
