According to the Pakistan Tanners Association (PTA), between the fiscal year 2011-2012 and the newly concluded (2015-2016), exports of finished leather in Islamabad has increased. It went from 25 million square meters circa per year to the current 16.8, with a decreasing turnover from 1.049 billion dollars of five years ago to today’s 0.981. It is a recurring negative trend with declining foreign sales for leather finished products with the exception for footwear. For this reason, from Pakistan arrive a proposal for cooperation. Shahid Rasheed Butt, director of the Chamber of Traders Little Islamabad, suggested that countries participating in the South Asian Association for Cooperation (SAARC, comprising Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal) should not compete in the leather industry, but cooperate. “Rich as they are in raw material – Butt said – they would all represent a global hub of tanning worth 1 trillion dollars a year.”
Pakistani exports of leather, excluding footwear, is down from five years ago. Small traders propose to join forces
