Over the last days, in Ho Chi Minh City India’s consulate in Vietnam promoted a meeting: some corporate representatives of India’s CLE (Council for Leather Exports), along with some delegates from LEFASO (Vietnam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association) took part in it. That was the aim of the meeting: Indian tanneries want to increase their leather supply to shoe factories (most of all) and leather goods companies located in Vietnam. As reported by World Footwear, the event organizers shared some figures: according to such data, in 2017, Vietnam, which imports around 60% of leather they need to manufacture shoes, purchased Indian hides worth 92 million dollars, that is, 5% of its overall imports. Looking ahead at 2018, they aim to reach 115 million dollars, therefore enhancing a mutual trade relationship. In fact, India imported from Vietnam (from April 2017 to March 2018) about 121,63 million dollars in shoes and other leather items. Quite a relevant amount indeed, which looks of trifling importance though, considering Vietnamese exports overall. As regards footwear, they have been speeding up considerably: Vietnam expects to reach, at the end of 2018, 16 billion dollars, therefore enjoying a boost by 9,2% compared to 2017. According to World Footwear Yearbook, Vietnam manufactures about 1,185 billion pairs of shoes every year, which is worth 5,2% of the worldwide production.
Looking for potential collaboration: Indian leather meets Vietnamese manufacturing
