Goyal asks leather sector to aim for 10 pc plus exports growth on own merit

New Delhi, Nov 17: Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal has asked India’s leather industry to aim for more ambitious growth in exports of leather products and position the ‘Made in India’ brand as the hallmark of excellence.
“I do feel very, very satisfied that you are aspiring to grow to at least $10 billion by 2025, though this still gives you only a growth rate of about 15-17%. Your industry has been at the forefront of innovation, high quality products, design, good recognition in export, world markets and has the competitive and comparative advantages when compared to the rest of the world. The Kolhapuri chappals alone can achieve $1 billion exports target,” he said, addressing the national export excellence awards presentation ceremony of the Council for Leather Exports (CLE) on Wednesday.
The Minister told leather manufacturers and exporters to be self-sufficient and not wait for Government schemes and land at subsidised rates which would hold back progress. The industry has sought the support of the Government in achieving the envisaged targets, extension of the Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) to the leather sector, a leather park scheme similar to that for textile industry and reinstatement of import duty exemption on wet blue, crust and finished leathers. This would help the sector to fulfil the export target of USD 5.89 billion set by the Ministry this year and exports of USD 10 billion, from USD 5.09 billion achieved in 2019-20. “We are committed to domestic industry turnover of USD 20 billion from the present USD 12 billion by 2025,” said Sanjay Leekha, Chairman CLE.
Goyal has however, assured the leather industry to help achieve the goals by setting up BIS standards laboratories in close proximity to leather clusters. “I think a lot of (high quality) produce does get made in India but is sold to the high mark-ups across the world through the branding exercises of some of these companies,” he said. Addressing the gathering, the Minister of State for Commerce & Industry Anupriya Patel assured the leather industry of Government support in their innovation endeavours. The Ministers also gave away the exports award for the years 2019-20 and 2020-21. UNI