India is world's 2nd largest producer of leather footwear

New Delhi, Mar 11 (UNI) India is the world's second largest producer of leather footwear, producing over 90 crore pairs per year.

Replying to a question in the Lok Sabha today, Minister of State for Industry Ashwani Kumar said of all leather products, footwear recorded the highest compounded annual growth rate of 18 per cent in 2005-06. Footwear exports worth 786.76 million dollars accounted for 28 per cent of total export of leather products in 205-06, he added.

The Minister said India's overall footwear export has been growing at 12 per cent per annum in the last five years.

He said presently around 70-80 per cent of footwear units were in the unorganised sector and, therefore, it was necessary to increase production capacities of footwear units to meet the increasing domestic demand in view of rising disposal incomes and to capitalise on opportunities in the global footwear market.

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