Three pronged approach to tackle crisis - Mr Hussain,Chief, CLE

04 Feb '09

2 min read

The 24th India International Leather fair, has despite the global economic crisis, able to line up 393 exhibitors, of which 122 are from overseas and in turn increased the prospects of the Indian leather industry, which is facing a severe crisis due to the global developments of the last few months and is witness to exports from the sector dipping by 33 percent m-o-m in the same period.

Chairman of the Council of Leather Exports, Mr Habib Hussain, has suggested a three pronged approach to tackle the crisis. He said, “First, prepare long term plans and create required infrastructure, second, provide term loans to those who have lost money due to the crisis and third, focus on the main markets of the US and EU”.

The scheme of a focus market was first raised in 2006 to offset high shipment costs and other problems faced by exporters in dealing with select global markets. Under the focus market scheme, the exporters can avail of a duty credit facility of 2.5% of the FOB (free on board) value of exports to those countries like the US and the EU which constitute 65 and 25 percent respectively of all leather exports.

Mr Hussain underlined the fact by saying that, “It is prudent to treat these countries as focus markets now”. He added by saying, “Leather exporters should concentrate on top lines rather than bottom lines and that the first priority is to not lose global customers like, Hugo Boss, Tommy Hilfiger and Coach to neighbouring China, which has a 20 percent share of global leather exports”.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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