Within Russia’s light industry, the leather sector has shown the highest production growth during the first part of 2002. The output by the leather, fur and footwear industry rose to 108% in the January-August period, compared with the same period in 2001.
In the first half of 2002, 33 enterprises produced chrome leather, but 93% of production came from the 16 largest companies. There were 13 factories producing juft; five of these were responsible for 84% of the total output. Sole leather was produced at 14 Russian enterprises, but the five largest of these accounted for 74% of total production.
Due to the export duty rate for raw hides and skins being raised to €500 for one ton, export volumes decreased steeply. In particular, cattle hide exports amounted to around 24,000 tons over the first half of 2002, 60% less compared with the same period in 2001. Leather exports, on the contrary, rose 2.5 times.
