India missed its export target of $6.25 billion in leather and leather goods for the financial year 2015-16.
From April 2015 to March 2016, India exported leather and leather goods worth $5.92 billion against $6.58 billion for the year-ago period, marking a negative growth of 10.11 per cent. The deceleration was mainly seen in finished leather at 21 per cent and footwear components at 20.88 per cent.
On the domestic side, the sales of leather and leather goods were to the tune of nearly $6 billion.
Talking to The Hindu, M. Rafeeque Ahmed, Council for Leather Exports Chairman said the exports volume was hit by several factors such as slowdown in China, weakening demand in euro zone, currency fluctuations, hike in duty tariff and recession.
“In the case of China there is a slowdown in manufacturing activities. Hence, our share of exports of finished leather has come down drastically. Exports of leather products are down by seven per cent. But, that is not a worrying factor. Due to the weakening euro, the prices of raw materials have gone up, which is being resisted by the European Union. However, we are facing competition from Portugal, Slovakia and Romania on the cost and logistics factors,” he said.
India exports nearly 60 per cent of its goods to the U.S., Germany, the U.K. Italy, France, Hong Kong and Spain. While India’s export to the U.S. was up by 11 per cent till January 2016, it was in the negative zone for other countries.
Asked about the forecasts for the current year, he said the sector would post at least 15 per cent growth over the previous year.
