Leather footwear export jumps by 7 % in July-August
Jannatul Ferdushy || BusinessInsider
Photo: Representational
The export of leather footwear of Bangladesh has increased by 6.98 percent during July-August, 2021.
The Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) statistics show that the footwear industry had set a target of exporting $106mn while it actually shipped worth $112.58mn in the two months.
In the Fiscal Year 20-21, the leather and leather products worth $942mn were shipped of which footwear comprised about $570mn.
in July-August of the incumbent FY, the leather and leather products fetched $174.71mn and missed the target set for the period by $1.63mn.
“The situation is improving gradually but it will take time to get back to pre-Covid level. Before the pandemic set in, our export had been worth $1.2bn which is now $0.9bn,” Nasir Khan, chairman and managing director of Jenny’s Shoes, told the Business Insider Bangladesh, on Monday.
“As the buying capacity of people living in host countries for value-added goods decreased due to a global economy marred by covid-19, demand for cheap sports and synthetic footwear rose in the global market which triggered the exports,” Tipu Sultan, proprietor of Bengal leather said.
Another reason for steady shipment was falling prices of raw materials. “The prices of raw materials went down, therefore, prices of finished products also fell and this is why our exports have increased despite lockdown,” said M S Saad, chief executive officer (CEO) of All Right Leather Corporation.
during lockdown people stayed at home, they got huge idle time to search products through online which triggers to raise the sell, he added.
According to the 2019 World Footwear Yearbook in 2018 Bangladesh was the 6th largest footwear producer (461 million pairs). In 2020, Bangladesh shared 1.9 percent of the world’s footwear production.
Exports earnings from the country’s leather and leather goods sector had declined sharply by 22 percent in the fiscal year 2019-20, the first year when as COVID-19 pandemic broke out. However, Bangladesh’s sales in the international market is gradually improving, exporters said.
