Leather exporters set $4 bn target for 2010

The Council for Leather Exports (CLE) recently said the Indian leather industry expected exports of leather and leather products from India to touch $4 billion by 2010. Leather footwear exports would cross $2.4 billion by 2010, CLE added.

Exports in the current fiscal were expected to be around $2 billion, S Audiseshiah, executive director of CLE said.

In the first half of this fiscal, exports touched $975 million, close to the all-time high to $1 billion achieved three years ago.

Speaking on 'Recent trends in the Indian leather industry' at the annual leather research industry session held in Chennai, he said investments were flowing in from countries like Italy, Spain and Portugal though joint ventures.

He could not quantify the value of investments from Europe but said the investments had materialised after the industry was de-reserved from the small scale sector two years ago. Saba Industries Pvt Ltd and Tata International had tied up with leather firms from Italy.

Audiseshiah said five industrial parks specialised in specific segments of the industry, like footwear, leather and product components, would soon be set up in the country. The locations of these industrial parks would be announced by the government, he said.

The central government had allocated Rs 400 crore in the Tenth Plan period for modernisation of tanneries and product development against only Rs 12 crore in the Ninth Plan period.

Audiseshiah said the Rs 400 crore investment by the government would attract investments worth Rs 2000 crore from industry in the Tenth Plan period. These investments would partly be for design and product development.

Dr T Ramasami, director of Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI), pointed out that India had emerged as a base for colour selection in the global leather trade, with 29 colours of the total 32 colours selected for Mode Europe 2005 coming from India.

The colours were developed through 20 tanneries and CLRI over a six-month period. Ramasami said leather technology was evolving rapidly.

Leather units in future would be using biological processing technology replacing chemical processing technologies being used at present and 11 institutes along with CLRI were working on these technologies.

The industry was looking at ways to minimise use of water in leather processing and also find new methods for using recycled water. Use of recycled water would reduce dependence on ground water.