Sri Lanka’s first footwear and leather hub rises in East

‘Footwear & Leather exports also up by 28%’

 “We are planning to set up Sri Lanka’s first footwear and leather industry city in the Eastern Province,” said Minister of Industry and Commerce, Rishad Bathiudeen addressing the inaugural event of National Footwear and Leather Exhibition “Footwear and Leather Fair ‘17” at BMICH, Colombo on last Friday.

“We welcome the strong Indian delegation to the ninth fair in this series. Our footwear and leather exports in 2016 increased by 28% in comparison to 2015 revenues to $140 million showing strong growth trends. What we need to understand in this is that 84% of these exports were in footwear. The global footwear and leather market is expected to exceed $ 600 billion by 2020. The global footwear market is estimated to be around $ 370 billion by 2020. The leather goods industry is estimated to reach $ 247 billion by that time,” the minister said.

“In a background of rising “middle class consumption” and demand for luxury goods across the world I believe that footwear has great promise for branding of Sri Lanka in international markets through a low cost export product,” the minister said.

“As the middle income population increases it is clear that the demand for designer footwear too would rise rapidly. Even though Casual footwear are leading the growth at present with more and more people entering an active sports lifestyle demand for athletic and sports footwear too are driving this growth.”

“Analysts say that sports footwear can give as much as 45% profit margins -the highest in footwear industry! Therefore I call Sri Lankan manufacturers and exporters again to pay closer attention to this sector and enter it by supplying more to established brands.”

“I also Obtained Cabinet approval for setting up a Dedicated Leather and Leather Goods Manufacturing Complex in Baticaloa District at an estimated cost of Rs. 450 million. More importantly we are planning to set up a footwear and leather industry city in the eastern province with Public Private Partnership. Realising that it is important to protect local manufacturers of this sector we have increased the taxes on footwear imports and introduced duty exemption facilities for import of finished leather for manufacturing of Footwear and Leather goods products,” minister added.

A key objective of foreign participant facilitation to this series by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce is tech transfer. Chennai based GTFC, a footwear materials and components supplier, is joining the Colombo fair for the first time and showed high enthusiasm.

“GTFC and Rhenoflex – Germany are here for the first time and I am excited. I represent Germany’s Rhenoflex, the world leader in Thermoplastic materials for Toe, side and counterpart reinforcements in shoes. Today we are introducing modern, green manufacturing based, recyclable shoe components to Sri Lanka through our partner India’s GTFC, for the first time through this Fair” said Rhenoflex Germany’s Vice Sales Director Rainer Godel. “We are exploring to partner with Lankan manufacturers in many ways” he added.