Leather industry should change its focus to creation of jobs, production for mass market, from Europe to the U.S. and from Tamil Nadu to the rest of India, said Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh at the inauguration of India International Leather Fair 2007, at Chennai Trade Centre on Wednesday.
Anti-dumping duties slammed on China and Vietnam recently has given India an opportunity to enter high-volume, low-value footwear market, informed the Minister.
To reach the U.S. market India would require to expand its capacity, said Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology Dayanidhi Maran, who inaugurated the fair.
State governments should encourage the industry as the U.K. market may require 10,000 pairs of shoes per order the U.S. on the other hand would require production of 100,000 to 200,000 pairs.
For India to compete with China in the U.S. footwear market, logistics needed to be improved and Shipping Ministry would require to start a direct container shipping link from Chennai port to the U.S. and Europe which presently gets routed through Colombo or Singapore.
It was also important to generate half a million new jobs in leather sector while attempting to reach leather exports target of $7 billion by 2011, Ramesh said.
Council for Leather Exports' (CLE) Rs 7 crore project being carried out in Kancheepuram district was lauded by Ramesh.
The project will be expanded to six other districtsacross the country.
CLE should also establish such centres in Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab, besides focusing on Bihar and Assam, he said.
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