Agra leather trade fair attracts Rs 150 crore business

The first international leather trade fair "Meet at Agra - 2007", organised by the Agra Footwear Manufacturers and Exporters Chamber (AFMEC), concluded on a promising note on Sunday, with the 143 participants securing business worth almost Rs 150 crore and earning nearly Rs 8-10 crore through sales of machinery in just two days.

Excited by the success of the trade fair, the AFMEC has decided to make it an annual event.

According to AFMEC President AS Rana, the two-day trade fair, which saw the participation of footwear component and machinery manufacturers from across the world, attracted over 15,000 visitors. This was a record performance for any such event held in Agra.

Puran Dawar, managing director, Dawar Footwear Industries said of the near Rs 150 crore queries generated in the fair, deals worth atleast Rs 100 crore were expected to materialise within the coming few months and by the next year, the trade fair will have to be extended to a much larger venue to accommodate all the participants that were seeking space for the next year's fair in advance.

He said representatives of the Italian footwear industry were specially pleased by the response received in the trade fair and a number of Italian firms expressed willingness to establish joint ventures with the town's industrialists and develop a market for their machinery in India, with Agra serving as their operational base.

Dawar said though the Agra footwear industry had been managing a steady growth rate by itself, the time had come that large corporate players entered and invested in this industry.

Besides, the synthetic shoes and footwear component segment still required technical and financial support from foreign companies that were yet to begin collaboration with the town's footwear industry.

Officials of the Botswana Export Development and Investment Authority had expressed their intent to develop a trade partnership with Agra footwear firms in terms of marketing the Agra leather products in Botswana, while opening a new leather source for the local footwear industry.