M. Rafeeque Ahmed, Chairman of the Council for Leather Exports (CLE), while speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the 45th Leather Research Industry Get-together (LERIG-2011) held recently by the Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI), requested the Centre to announce establishment of five mega leather clusters to help the sector surmount the problem of raw material scarcity in coming years.
He further stated that, the Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was urged to make a provision in the Union Budget for establishing these mega leather clusters resembling the mega textile clusters.
Heavy floods that recently hit countries like Brazil, Australia and Pakistan would cause severe scarcity of raw materials in short run, he said. Though, India now has a profuse supply of raw skins and hides, but factors like rising demand, enhanced purchasing power in hands of the people, soaring prices of petroleum and its effect on the prices of petroleum-based chemicals may result in severe competition in raw material sourcing over the coming two years, he added.
The Centre has been urged to set up the clusters in the states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, he said. He further added that, the tanners should spot new locations, expand their capacity and commence operations within two years as the demand is expected to go up very high by that time.
Further, the CLE Regional Chairman, South, P.R. Aqeel Ahmed revealed that, the CLE, by way of its modernization and technology up gradation programme intended to raise its exports from the Southern region.
Meanwhile, the CLRI Research Council Chairman K.V. Raghavan said that, the CLRI should build close contacts with the African nations in order to facilitate imports of raw materials, inking of science and technology based deals and business contracts, building a better insight and vision for India's leather industry, and thus play a major part in generating new Intellectual Property and safeguarding the same.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India
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