China, the world's largest shoes producer and exporter, saw a 17.5 percent rise in the value of its shoes exports in the first half of 2007, but prices per pair were lower than that for the previous year.

In the Jan.-June period, China exported 4.4 billion pairs of shoes, worth US$12 billion, said Wang Hanjiang, president of China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Light Industrial Products, Arts and Crafts.

The shoes were priced at an average of US$2.7 per pair, down from US$2.8 for the whole of 2006 when China sold 7.8 billion pairs of shoes abroad.

Two billion of them, worth US$7.6 billion, were sold to the United States, the largest importer of Chinese-made shoes, at an average price less than a third of that of made-in-Italy shoes, said Wang.

Despite rapid development of China's shoe-making industry, most local manufacturers were small, exporting low-end products and earning low profits, said Wang.

(Xinhua News Agency Agusugt 25,2007)