Leather exporters eye Walmart orders

Indian leather exporters said Walmart was planning to buy leather finished goods from the country. Walmart would buy footwear, according to S S Kumar, chairman of Council for Leather Export (CLE). Its order may be worth as much as $100 million annually, he claimed.

"This is a symbolic achievement for the Indian leather goods industry. It will help exporters gain greater access to the US market," Kumar said.

CLE acted as facilitator to help Walmart identify units at Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Agra and Kanpur for sourcing casual footwear. Other US footwear companies like Trimfoot and Earth Brand have also shown interest in procuring from India, Kumar said.

"CLE has organised visits of sourcing executives of these two companies. They are in dialogue with some footwear manufacturers," he added.

"Footwear, leather and non-leather, will be the engine of growth as far leather sector is concerned," Kumar said. A seven-member Spanish delegation for purchase of footwear components and a four-member French delegation for footwear have visited units in Agra and Chennai.