Agra footwear firms to figure in Milan fair

Exhibition to be held in September

The ailing footwear industry of Agra may at last see better days. With foreign footwear importers beginning to show interest in the old leather industry of this town, the shoe-manufacturing and -exporting companies of Agra are busy setting ambitious export targets for the years.

In an effort to attract foreign buyers, the footwear manufacturers of Agra are now preparing to participate in a footwear expo to be held in September in Milan under the aegis of the Indian Trade Promotion Organisation and the Union ministry of small-scale industries under its Export Promotion & Marketing scheme.

This is not the first of Agra's Italy connections. Earlier it had been reported in this paper a footwear components park would be set up in Agra by the Council of Leather Exports, government of India, at over Rs 16 crore. Work is in progress. Sources said Italian companies had agreed to buy out a significant part of the park.

In the first phase, 58 domestic footwear units had proposed to set up units in the park and efforts were also under way to get this park classified as a special export park with the ministry of commerce giving the shoe manufacturers and exporters the advantage of duty draw backs and tax rebates on footwear export.

Apart from this, Roger Exports, a major footwear-exporting company of Agra, participated in the 64th Expo Riva Schuh, the biggest international footwear trade fair, held in Riva del Garda, Trentino, Italy.

Talking to Business Standard, RS Yadav, deputy director, Small-Scale Industries Service Institute, Agra, said in all, there were about 200 footwear-exporting firms in Agra exporting to several countries, but besides these firms, there were also about 6,000 small-scale footwear-manufacturing units functioning in the town that were yet to make a breakthrough in the world market.

He said Agra, whose footwear has become a brand name due to its high quality and low price, manufactured almost 200,000 pairs of shoes every day but in terms of foreign representation, the small-scale industries of this town had virtually no international standing.

To help these small-scale units build their brands internationally, he said, the ministry of small-scale industry had decided to sponsor an Indian footwear stall at the Milan Footwear Expo in Italy, a country known to be a trendsetter in footwear fashion.

The expo will be held during September 22-25 in Milan, in which the small-scale footwear units of Agra will be given a chance to display samples of their products in the SSI stall free of cost.

He said this expo would serve as a display of footwear before foreign importers and no buying-selling of products would take place there.

Subsequently, the orders from the foreign buyers would be booked by the SSI ministry on behalf of the footwear firms and only the ministry would handle the exports in these deals, acting as an intermediary.

In Italy's shoes

Expo to serve as a display of footwear before foreign importers, free of cost

No buying and selling of products will take place in Milan

Orders from the foreign buyers will be booked by the SSI ministry

Italian firms to take up space in Agra footwear components park