The decline has been attributed to high production costs and increasing competition with other countries such as China and India.In value terms, exports of US$546.091 million were recorded in July-June 06-07 compared with $722.553 million in the same period of 05-06.Looking specifically at leather garments, exports dropped by 22.72% in value and 21.71% in volume. Around 822,000 dozen pieces of leather garments were shipped in 06-07 compared with 1,050,000 dozen pieces in 05-06. The total number of leather gloves exported stood at 3.744 million dozens worth $125.612 million.
A significant drop was also recorded in exports of other leathergoods: down 52.79% in value and 52.23% in volume. The exports of leather footwear also dropped by 21.44% to $114.081 million compared with $145.220 million in the previous fiscal period.
However, exports of tanned leather recorded a slight increase of 3.55% in value and 4.87% in volume. Tanners exported 17.891 million sq m of tanned leather compared with 17.377 million in the 05-06 period.