Bihar, J&K to be next finished leather hubs

The Centre is planning to develop Bihar and Jammu & Kashmir as major finished leather hubs by helping them move up the value chain from being raw material centres.

The move follows a report by a technical delegation comprising experts from the Council for Leather Exports and and Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI) which stated that Bihar has the best quality goat skin, hide and buffalo calf skin. It added that Jammu & Kashmir has the best quality sheep skin and bovine hide.

“We are in talks with the Bihar and J&K governments to make investments to set up tanneries and an ultra-modern common effluent treatment plant (CETP) in Srinagar and Muzaffarpur to help them be major leather centres,” minister of state for commerce Jairam Ramesh told reporters here on Friday. Despite having 5% of the country’s total leather output, Bihar languishes as a raw material market due to lack of facilities for finished leather. According to experts, if Bihar becomes a finished leather centre, a shoe factory with a production capacity of 1,000 pairs a day could employ 5,000 more people. Besides, abundant labour supply and the sector being not power-intensive suit Bihar very well. As per the vision document prepared by the industry, footwear would comprise about 60% of the total leather exports target of $7 billion in 2011. In 2006-07, footwear exports was about 38% (up from 33% a year ago) of the total leather exports worth $3.1 billion. Pointing out that presently 64% of the total footwear exports were going to the European Union and only 12% were shipped to the US, Jairam Ramesh said. He added that in the next fiscal, the government would make policy shifts to help increase such exports to the US. He said footwear exporerts must also focus more on the $4-$8 price range mass market in the developed countries, currently dominated by China and Vietnam. India has more presence in the $15-$20 market. Indian footwear exporters will also have to capture the women and children footwear market from China and Vietnam, he added. Ramesh said the Centre would set up integrated leather parks in Chennai, Kolkata, Agra, Kanpur and Nellore (Andhra Pradesh).