The leather industry projects 15-20% growth during the current financial year due to favourble order outlooks. For 2012-13, export of leather and leather products stood at $4.996 billion against $4.874 billion in the previous fiscal year, reporting a modest growth of 2.53%. According to Council for Leather Exports (CLE), in rupee terms, exports were up 16% compared to the previous year.

Export of different categories of footwear holds a major share of 41.1% in country’s total leather exports with an export value of $ 2.056 billion. This is followed by leather goods & accessories with a share of 23.59%, finished leather 21.82%, leather garments 11.28% and saddlery & harness 2.17%.

Finished leather, goods and non-leather segments, sustained their growth momentum through 2012-13, while footwear, components and garments reported decline in exports during the year. Footwear, which makes up the major chunk of India’s exports, registered a marginal 2% decline at $1.68 billion in 2012-13 when compared with $1.72 billion in the previous fiscal year.

Leather garments also reported a 2% fall at $563 million, while footwear components reported 13% drop at $245 million. Finished leather and leather goods reported a growth of 6% and 8% at $1.09 billion and $1.18 billion respectively.
However, in rupee terms, all categories have reported doubled growth in exports in 2012-13 barring footwear components, which reported a marginal drop in exports.

The major markets for Indian Leather & Leather Products are Germany (12.60%), UK (11.96%), USA (10.51%), Hong Kong (8.82%), Italy (8.77%), France (6.39%), Spain (5.34%), Netherlands (3.79%), China (2.48%), UAE (2.53%), Belgium (1.86%) and Australia (1.48%). These 12 countries together accounted for about 77% of India’s total leather exports in 2012-13.

Exports to markets such as USA, UK, Hong Kong, Australia, Denmark, Canada, Japan, UAE and Saudi Arabia have shown growth during the previous fiscal. But, declining trend was seen in exports to Germany, Italy, Spain, Russia, Netherlands, Greece, South Africa and Portugal.

“Considering the expected good winter sales in Europe this year, we anticipate between 15-20% export growth during 2013-14 but to achieve this we need to undertake concerted and aggressive marketing efforts," said Rajendra K Jalan, Chairman, CLE.