AGRA shoes miss US export orders
Demise of the USSR a big blow; infrastructure weak
VISHAL SHARMA
AGRA. It may be producing more than 1.5 lac pairs of shoes every day, but the Agra footwear industry is still not ready to handle the volume of export orders that the US market is generating presently, due to lack of infrastructure and insufficient availability of export-ready high grade raw leather.
According to the footwear industry sources, there are about 60 footwear exporting units functioning in Agra at present, though this number is less than half the number of footwear exporting units that existed in the early 80s before the fall of the Soviet Union.
Pegged at almost 1100 crores at present, the export potential of Agra footwear exporters is expected to grow by 20 to 25 percent this year with the rising labor prices in European countries though the Indian share in the world footwear market is still less than 3 percent while China stands strongly poised at 29 percent.
Talking to Business Standard, Puran Dawar managing director, Dawar Footwear Industries, a prominent footwear exporting company of Agra, said that in the early 80s, the Soviet Union was the single largest importer of footwear from Agra, buying more than 1200 crores worth of shoes from almost 150 shoe exporters of the town but after the fall of the Soviet Union, this export was reduced to less than 100 crores, leading to the shutdown of almost 60 percent of the shoe exporting units of Agra.
Now, he said, after almost twenty years long dry spell in exports, the footwear industry of Agra was slowly regaining its footing and due to the low priced but high quality shoes produced here, the local units were receiving outsourcing orders from multinationals like Bata and Lumberjack, though the industry was still vying for orders from US majors like Wal-Mart. Also, the Agra footwear industry had not been able to establish any indigenous brand of its own in the world market while shoes like multinational brands like Reebok, Woodland were selling like hotcakes in Agra itself.
According to Mr. Dawar, the reason behind the US companies neglecting Agra footwear companies was that majority of the Agra shoe manufacturing companies were mid-level units who were incapable of producing shoe pairs in the bulk volume as required by the US market.
According to Mr. Dawar, the standard supply deadline of a US order was ninety days and the volume of orders reached more than 500 thousand pairs of shoes in a single batch, which was a tremendous target to achieve for any Agra footwear unit as the availability of high quality raw leather in Agra was rather scarce and besides, the production cost of a single pair of shoes in Agra was almost 2-3 times in comparison to China, raising the overall initial investment in the orders, which, the Agra footwear industry could ill-afford at this moment.
He said that the Agra Footwear Manufacturers and Exporters Chamber has demanded to the Central Government to place a check on the export of raw leather in the form of livestock to neighboring countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan as if the Agra shoe industry was assured of a regular supply of raw leather, it would also be able to stand firmly against the competition being posed by China in the world market.
(UNITED NEWS NETWORK)
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According to the footwear industry sources, there are about 60 footwear exporting units functioning in Agra at present, though this number is less than half the number of footwear exporting units that existed in the early 80s before the fall of the Soviet Union.
Pegged at almost 1100 crores at present, the export potential of Agra footwear exporters is expected to grow by 20 to 25 percent this year with the rising labor prices in European countries though the Indian share in the world footwear market is still less than 3 percent while China stands strongly poised at 29 percent.
Talking to Business Standard, Puran Dawar managing director, Dawar Footwear Industries, a prominent footwear exporting company of Agra, said that in the early 80s, the Soviet Union was the single largest importer of footwear from Agra, buying more than 1200 crores worth of shoes from almost 150 shoe exporters of the town but after the fall of the Soviet Union, this export was reduced to less than 100 crores, leading to the shutdown of almost 60 percent of the shoe exporting units of Agra.
Now, he said, after almost twenty years long dry spell in exports, the footwear industry of Agra was slowly regaining its footing and due to the low priced but high quality shoes produced here, the local units were receiving outsourcing orders from multinationals like Bata and Lumberjack, though the industry was still vying for orders from US majors like Wal-Mart. Also, the Agra footwear industry had not been able to establish any indigenous brand of its own in the world market while shoes like multinational brands like Reebok, Woodland were selling like hotcakes in Agra itself.
According to Mr. Dawar, the reason behind the US companies neglecting Agra footwear companies was that majority of the Agra shoe manufacturing companies were mid-level units who were incapable of producing shoe pairs in the bulk volume as required by the US market.
According to Mr. Dawar, the standard supply deadline of a US order was ninety days and the volume of orders reached more than 500 thousand pairs of shoes in a single batch, which was a tremendous target to achieve for any Agra footwear unit as the availability of high quality raw leather in Agra was rather scarce and besides, the production cost of a single pair of shoes in Agra was almost 2-3 times in comparison to China, raising the overall initial investment in the orders, which, the Agra footwear industry could ill-afford at this moment.
He said that the Agra Footwear Manufacturers and Exporters Chamber has demanded to the Central Government to place a check on the export of raw leather in the form of livestock to neighboring countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan as if the Agra shoe industry was assured of a regular supply of raw leather, it would also be able to stand firmly against the competition being posed by China in the world market.
(UNITED NEWS NETWORK)
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