Boost leather quality for tapping China market: Bangladesh's exporters

The ministry of commerce recently sought suggestion from the Bangladesh embassy in Beijing on strategies to raise exports of leather and leather goods to China.

Commercial counsellor at the mission Mohammad Monsur Uddin informed the ministry that during the last 10 years, Bangladesh, on an average, exported leather worth $50 million and footwear worth $16.70 million to China.

"The Chinese buyers are interested to import high-quality leather at competitive price from the USA, Brazil, Italy and Australia instead of high-priced leather from Bangladesh," he said.

He also feels that to export leather to China and other global markets, Bangladesh needs to set up slaughtering machines in urban and rural areas and separate leather by using machines, according to a report in a Bangladesh newspaper.

The highest volume of leather export to China this decade was worth $76.36 million in fiscal 2016-17, leather goods worth $145 million in fiscal 2015-16, and footwear export worth 33.50 million in the same fiscal.

Uddin further said the quality requirements of Chinese importers are much higher than the prices they offer, thus many Bangladeshi exporters show less interest in exporting leather and leather goods to China.

The demand for world-standard brand products is rising in China but there are no outlets of Bangladeshi brands over there.

The commercial counsellor suggests setting up Bangladeshi brand outlets in China and employing agents for marketing, promotion, and advertisement to raise export of leather goods and footwear.

He also suggested Bangladeshi companies to enhance participation in expositions in Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)