Since the past three consecutive years, export of leather and its products is experiencing a continuous fall as a result of the enhanced business expenditure, wages, utilities, prices of domestic as well as imported chemicals, rate of interest and adverse rupee-dollar exchange rate.
Leather exports from the country recorded a fall of 31.43 percent from 2007-08 as a result of several reasons, between the periods 2007-08 and 2009-10.
The expenditure on business has increased in the country. Wages and utilities have also gone up owing to the increase in the price of leather per square foot by 50-60 percent.
The expenditure on imported chemicals has also increased because of the rise in their prices, mark-up rate and adverse rupee-dollar exchange rate.
Against the rise in costs, the per unit export prices for several products have come down. On the whole, between 2007-08 and 2009-10, raw leather prices came down by 14.92 percent, leather apparels by 15.13 percent and leather gloves by 21.59 percent.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India