Bags / Shoes & Accessories

Since the outbreak of the epidemic, Bangladesh's export of leather and its products and footwear in international trade has exceeded the US $1 billion threshold for the first time, with an export of US $1.25 billion in the fiscal year 2021-2022, an increase of more than 32% year on year.

According to the data of Export Promotion Bureau of Bangladesh (EPB), leather and leather products increased by 9.82% year on year to US $99.41 million, compared with US $90.52 million in the same period of the previous fiscal year. In addition, from January 2022 to June 2022, the export revenue of international trade in leather, its products and footwear was 667.39 million US dollars, an increase of 35% over the same period last year.

Ibnul Wara, the general manager of Austan Limited, said: "As the world economy enters a recession, it is not surprising that the growth data will slow down or even decline in the coming months. Compared with 2021, the leather industry will grow by less than 10% in July 2022, and the leather products will begin to show negative growth."

Inur Vara added that this year's Christmas sales in Europe and the United States will play a key role in whether we can achieve the international trade export target of 1.44 billion dollars this fiscal year. The global leather industry is worth nearly 400 billion US dollars, of which Bangladesh's share is less than 1%. Therefore, Bangladesh's leather industry's international trade exports still have great growth potential.

"If we can make good use of the recent transfer of global procurement and attract more foreign direct investment (FDI) We will be able to realize the export of 10 billion US dollars. In view of Bangladesh's rich raw leather resources, leather, leather goods and footwear have unique conditions to attract foreign direct investment. However, environmental compliance will become the most important factor for the leather industry to attract foreign direct investment. The key to environmental compliance is to establish a fully functional CETP (Centralized Wastewater Treatment Plant), which has passed the international compliance certification, and at the same time, can improve the added value of international trade and export of leather products. "