The director, although branded EI leather in the note as `semi-finished' (despite its direct use in some cases) as defined in the government notification and norms for finished leather exports, suggested a national level consultative meeting of all concerned Chairman of all regions of Council for Leather Exports (CLE) along with office bearers of Associations of Finished Leather Manufacturers as well as small manufacaturers of EI leathers - to consider the following terms of reference for policy readjustments for a limited period upto one year to liberalise the export policy with appropriate safe-guards for the interests of indigenoususers:
Suggest any alternative and acceptable mechanism for ensuring the liquidation of stock at fair market prices within the country.Ramasami also advises the present market driven leather industry to change to technology driven status for better unit value realisation from Indian leathers as a long term measure. If requested CLRI would be hapy to prepare a white paper through a special task force constituted for this purpose, he declared in the note.
But EI tanenrs consider the national level meeting an exercise in futility and strongly hold the view that ``when imports of all kinds of lethers are allowed, exports of all leathers should also be allowed''. Thisstand is supported by almost all tannery owners producing goat, cow and buffle leathers. Even big leather products manufacturers who have their own tanneries endorse this policy, whereas leather products manufacturers who do not have their own tanneries oppose this with the fear that goods will not be available to them in the local market if all leathers are freely allowed for export.
There is good demand for tanned goat skins Rejection and Langda at around Rs. 115.00 and Rs. 85.00 per kg respectiely from leather goods manufacturers, but tanners complain that they are not paying fair prices. It is a well known fact that tanners have been incurring heavy losses by selling these items at ridiculously low and highly unworkable prices. Their predicament can be guessed from the fact that tanning charges alone works out to about Rs. 65 per kg.
Tanned goat skins 4/7 garment suede was sold at around Rs. 32.50 and 3/5 and 4/7 linings A/B/C fetched at around Rs. 19/17/15 per sq.ft.
Shoe manufacturers bought F/Ccow linings GH/IJ 50/50% at around Rs. 31.00 per sq.ft.
Wetblue cow hides I/II,III,IV,V and VI were sold at around Rs. 56, 47, 37, 28 and 21 per sq.ft. respectively and lot `as it is' was sold at around Rs 23.00 per sqft.
There is demand for sheep cabretta and nappa at around Rs. 70.00 and Rs. 45.00 per sq.ft. There was also enquiry for goat nappa particularly in lower grades.
Inspite of Summer holidays abroad, some business was done in goat leathers at prices ranging from $ 0.80 to 1.00 per sq.ft. C&F. Some buyers requested their suppliers to ship the goods after the holidays in September.Leather garment units are slow in production because of insufficient orders, whereas shoe factories are busy in executing their satisfactory orders.
The author is a Chennai-based leather analyst
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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