Kolkata, Mar 22 (PTI) The leather goods industry in West Bengal is projected to grow at 10 per cent in the current fiscal year ending March 2024, despite looming geopolitical and recession fears in the US and Europe, a senior official said on Friday.
The Indian Leather Products Association (ILPA) stated that the shift in sourcing strategies from ‘China First’ to ‘China-Plus-One’ is driving demand from India amid headwinds.
“We will maintain growth momentum from Bengal. We expect at least a 10 per cent year-on-year growth in FY’24. We had exports of Rs 5,000 crore in 2022-23 from the state, expanding by 10 per cent,” ILPA President A M Kulkarni told PTI.
This growth is primarily driven by the ‘China plus one’ strategy adopted by global leather brands to increase sourcing from India as an alternate supply chain to de-risk their business and manage costs.
Major leather clusters in India are located in Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Delhi, Maharashtra, Haryana and West Bengal.
“China, which accounted for 34-35 per cent of the supply chain in leather and non-leather products to the world in the pre-Covid era, is now reduced to around 20 per cent. We are the major beneficiaries of the demand shift, as witnessed in other products too,” said Rajarshi Dey, vice-president of ILPA.
He added that from 2010 to 2020, manufacturing labour wages in China increased nearly three-fold, and India remains a cost-effective manufacturing destination with the right skills, encouraging brands to source from India.
ILPA members supply major global brands like Porsche, Gucci, Prada, MARC, Zara, Mango, Diesel, Police, and Max Mara.
Meanwhile, the West Bengal leather industry is seeking additional land to accommodate more leather products and fashion units due to easy sourcing of raw materials.
“We are seeking at least 20 acres of land to accommodate the expansion of existing units and new companies arriving from other states. The current leather park at Bantala near Kolkata is at full capacity. We desire that the state government should offer land close to the city as the leather industry is labour-intensive,” Kulkarni said. PTI BSM NN
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