The appeal is working. Sidharth Nath Singh, member of Uttar Pradesh’s Legislative Assembly, has announced that some companies operating in the leather segment are interested in moving production from China and Brazil back to India.
The first official “reshore” is German: a footwear manufacturer called Von Wellx. Other districts in the country, meanwhile, continue to fear for their future. Tanners, leather goods and footwear producers in the Jalandhar area are still dealing with the lockdown, as well as the pollution, all aspects that are putting their reopening at risk.
The appeal is working
Narendra Modi’s push to attract companies leaving China seems to be giving its first results. As reported by Ani (press agency), Casa Everz Gmbh has decided to move production of its Von Wellx footwear brand from China to India. The brand makes orthopedic and leather shoes for the most part (in picture taken from da www.vonwellx.com), will be made in the city of Agra, Uttar Pradesh, in collaboration with Iatric Industries.
The German brand, already present in India with partial production, sells its shoes in 80 countries around the world. The minister of micro and small businesses, Uday Bahan Singh, stated he is “very happy to see Casa Everz’s investments coming from China to India, as they will provide many jobs”. Ani reported that this decision is worth more than 10,000 jobs, between direct employees and indirect individuals.
Not just from China
The German company is apparently not the only one interested in moving production. As reported by online portal theweek.in, “there are companies tied to leather tanning in China and Brazil with which the Uttar Pradesh’s government is in contact”. According to a Bloomberg report, the Modi government has found a series of areas to offer such entities that is about 4,600 square kilometers.
The future remains uncertain
Yet, not everything works well in India. On the contrary, news come from all over India’s production environment, and they aren’t particularly positive. The Jalandhar district, (Punjab), fears for its future. 200 companies tied to the leather segment, such as tanners, leather goods and footwear manufacturers, are located in the area. “The leather industry has been harshly hit – explains Ajay Sharma, secretary of the Punjab Leather federation, to tribuneindia.com -.
The sudden stop has blocked supply chains and the export of raw material. 60% of orders has been cancelled during the pandemic as markets suffered worldwide shutdowns”. The forced shutdown of tanneries has caused direct financial damages as well as indirect losses, as hides have rotten inside warehouses. Jalandhar’s tanneries are, meanwhile, also dealing with the matter of pollution. Some of them weren’t respecting the environmental laws and were forced to stop operations by the local government and the High Court of Haryana.
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