Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Wednesday, Oct 11, 2006
ePaper
Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Wednesday, Oct 11, 2006 ePaper |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Industry & Economy
-
Leather Leather exporters must try for larger market share G. Srinivasan
New Delhi , Oct. 10 Despite the reprieve domestic leather export industry might get by way of new opportunities opening up in the European Union (EU) in the wake of the latter's latest anti-dumping duty on China and Vietnam, a reality check shows the chinks in Indian leather industry's armour. For instance, even as China has increased its share both in the high-volume and low volume segments, India's progress on both the counts has been poor. This owes partly to the product mix of global leather basket where it is dominated by footwear to an extent of 65 per cent, while footwear in Indian basket is only 36 per cent. Indian leather caters to medium and high quality markets, though in lesser volume and there is a case for looking at pricing Indian footwear competitively to gain good access to the US market. Other important differences between India and its competitors are that footwear segment in India is dominated by men's shoes in the formal category even as the world's largest footwear market (the US) commands a product mix in favour of casual shoes, athletic shoe and ladies shoe. But India is "woefully weak" in all these three segments.
UNIDO report
A UNIDO report in 2005 pointed out that as against 200 industrial houses like Shoe Factory in China, India has only four large shoe manufacturing industrial houses. About 63 per cent of its exports are in the European market with only a fraction of the exports going to the US, which is the highest growing market in the world. Indian footwear sector is adversely hit by the lack of adequate component supply with the component sector remaining in the infant stage and bigger manufacturers importing the components. According to a vision document made by the Council for Leather Exports, the export target of $7 billion by 2010-11 by the leather industry demands immediate investment in capacity augmentation, human resource development and training of manpower. The marketing strategy needs a paradigm shift by focusing on the larger markets such as the US and new markets in the Far East and Scandinavian countries.
Related Stories: More Stories on : Leather | Exports & Imports
Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page
|
Stories in this Section |
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | The Hindu ePaper | Business Line | Business Line ePaper | Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | The Hindu Images | Home |
Copyright © 2006, The
Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu Business Line
|