Date:30/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/30/stories/2008103056551800.htm

Business

‘Leather exports target may not be hit’

— PHOTO: ANU PUSHKARNA

E-PORTAL: Secretary, Ministry of Commerce, G. K. Pillai (right), with Chairman, Mukhtarul Amin, Council for Leather Exports, launching CLE’s e-portal in New Delhi on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI: Leather exporters would find it tough to achieve the ambitious target of 16 per cent growth in their shipments this fiscal in the face of U.S. and European market meltdown.

“Indications for the next season are quite weak and we are worried about it,” Council for Leather Exports (CLE) Chairman Mukhtarul Amin said here on Wednesday.

During 2007-08, leather exports registered a growth of 13.67 per cent at $3.47 billion, a four-year record growth which prompted the industry to set an ambitious target of $4 billion for the current fiscal. However, things had changed dramatically in the last few weeks and the growth in September had plunged, Commerce Ministry sources said. “You may find a little bit of turbulence in the coming months. You have... to meet the challenges,” Commerce Secretary G. K. Pillai told CLE members while launching the e-portal of the Council for Leather Exports (CLE).

He advised leather exporters to work closely with the Government and the Reserve Bank of India.

Relief for exporters

Concerned over a sharp decline in export growth to 10 per cent in September from about 27 per cent in August this year, the Commerce Ministry is working on a relief package for exporters.

“Commerce Ministry is preparing a relief package in consultation with the industry and it will be submitted to the Finance ministry. In the next couple of days, it will be finalised,” Mr. Pillai told reporters here.

Many Indian exporters are forced to scale down their businesses and lay off workers as hundreds of U.S. and European garment stores have pulled the shutters down and several of them went bankrupt. — PTI