Trade agreements with China, EU to help leather industry

Trade agreements with China and European Union will help grow the domestic leather industry as a lot of opportunities exist in those countries for the Indian exporters, says the Chairman of Council for Leather Exports.
"One of our requests is to have trade agreement with China. China is a gold mine as a market," M Rafeeque Ahmed, Chairman, Council for Leather Exports, representing the leather industry, told reporters here.
He further said, "People are afraid that China will dominate India, but my feeling is we can go and dominate their market in China. We want the government to have some trade agreements with China...."

Ahmed also sought a similar agreement with European Union as it was one of the largest markets for the leather industry.
Indian Trade Promotion Organisation Chairman J S Deepak said the government was looking at increasing leather exports to 25 per cent.
"You know exports of leather have increased at an average of 15 per cent over the last five years. It is a very very huge increase. This is because exports have increased at a time when there is currency was witnessing a devaluation. We are looking at a vision of 25 per cent a year from the present 15 per cent," Deepak said.

Besides the EU, some markets in South America, South East Asia and parts of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) also offered huge opportunity for the industry, he said.

Referring to increase in capacity for leather, Rafeeque Ahmed said the government was expected to announce separate funding for the industry in order to incease the tanneries.
"For the next three to five years we need investments of about Rs 300 to Rs 500 crore in Tamil Nadu. But countrywise, it is about Rs 1,500 crore. Such investments are needed to upscale the production," he said.
He said if capacity was increased, foreign investors were ready to set up units in the country. "If the tanning capacity can be increased, big investors from abroad like Brazil are interested to start tanneries here," he said.