Leather garments export continues to slide.

Export of leather garments continued to slide during the last fiscal year as it registered a fall of 10.31 percent to $860.244 million from $959.146 million in the previous year.

Pakistan’s leather sector export had stood at $1.25 billion in 2007-08. But it has been on a downward course ever since owing to the economic conditions of the country and the impact of war on terror.

The average unit prices of our products have also fallen.

The provisional figures released by the Federal Bureau of Statistic show that only the export of raw leather increased during 2009-10. It was up by 12.57 percent to $337.145 million from $299.494 million in the previous year. But the unit price of raw leather fell to $14.17 per square meter from $15.33 in the previous year.

Export of raw leather including wetblue and wet split increased last year as demand from China, India and Vietnam for shoe manufacturing increased significantly.

Agha Saiddain, a former chairman of Pakistan Tanners Association (PTA), said that India imported raw leather from Pakistan both directly and indirectly. He said that consumption of red meat in India was lower then Pakistan as cow is a sacred animal there.

So the Indian industry faces a shortage of raw material and imports raw leather from Pakistan. It also uses the Dubai route for its import.

He said that overall export of leather sector items including leather garments and gloves had declined. The main reason behind this is the global recession, which has squeezed the purchasing power in the West. “They now prefer cheaper products made of polyester, cotton or artificial leather,” he said. He added that export of gloves declined owing to the closure of industries in the West.

“Pakistan mainly exports gloves that are used in industries, but owing to the economic meltdown there have been a huge number of layoffs and industries in the West have reduced the procurement of industrial gloves,” he added. He further mentioned that a number of gloves and garments units had closed down in Lahore, Sailkot and Kasur owing to the lack of demand.

Leather apparel and clothing export declined by 10.71 percent to $343.333 million last year from $392.536 million in the previous year. Export of leather gloves registered a 15.74 percent decline to $96.081 million last year from $152.258 million in the previous year.

Export of leather footwear recorded a fall of 6.34 percent to $70.468 million last year from $102.884 million in the previous year.

Export of miscellaneous leather products, however, grew by 10.38 percent to $13.217 million last year from $11.974 million in the last year

Source : thenews.com.pk