Leather export to touch 8 billion dollars by 2012

New Delhi, May 7 (UNI) Leather exports are likely to touch eight billion dollars from the existing three billion dollars by 2012, registering a growth of about 167 per cent, provided a planned strategy is put in place for capacities enhancement.

The global leather industry is valued at about 85 billion dollars. India has 2.56 per cent share in the global leather trade and ranks eighth in the world in terms of the country's foreign exchange earnings from the industry,'' a study condicted by Assochem said.

The contribution of small cottage sector to leather industry's production is 65 per cent with export volumes of two billion dollars, it added.

Leather industry currently employs 2.5 million workforce and with suggested strategy in place the number of potential employees will rise by another two million in next five years.

Assocham President Venugopal N Dhoot said that leather industry can transform itself for complete turnaround with increase in tanning and production capacity to cater to huge footwear market.

Its the present capacity of 2,50,000 pairs a day could increase to over 1.5 million pairs a day, he added.

To capitalise on the growing leather export market, a SEZ footwear park is being developed by Tamil Nadu government in Sriperambattur near Chennai. This park would have a salable area of 105 acres and could house about 20 units. The total capacity of the park could be about 1,00,000 pairs a day.

However, in the perspective planning, five SEZ were envisaged all over the country.

The study pointed out that the planning commission has allotted an amount of Rs 400 crore to fund leather industry modernisation but, there was undue delay in releasing the funds under this scheme called the 'Integrated Leather Development Programme'(ILDP).

The study estimates that 15 per cent of total purchase of leading global brands in footwear, garments, leather goods and accessories in Europe is outsourced from India.

According to the suggested road map for leather industry by the chember, it has been projected that footwear would continue to be the largest segment of exports constituting about 56 per cent of the total exports and to a value of 4.3 billion dollars out of the total 7 billion dollars.

A number of footwear companies from South East Asia and Europe are increasingly looking to set up their manufacturing facilities in India.

The key markets for leather products exported from India are Germany, the UK, US, Italy and Spain.

UNI