- Saturday, May 18, 2024
By: PTI
Indian footwear and leather exports to West Asia and North Africa (WANA) region have registered an exponential growth of 20 per cent in the first half of 2022, officials said on Monday (12).
Opening the India Footwear and Leather Products Show 2022 in Dubai, UAE, on Monday as part of the Indian government’s export promotion drive across global markets, Council for Leather Exports (CLE) Chairman Sanjay Leekha said the growth momentum for Indian exports to the region is all set to see a marked scaling up, particularly in the UAE.
“Indian footwear and leather exports to West Asia and North Africa (WANA) region registered an exponential growth of 20 per cent in the first half of the 2022 fiscal, from April to September, with the UAE followed by Saudi markets leading the uptake,” the CLE said in a press release.
The India Footwear and Leather Products Show 2022 will run from December 13-14. “As for footwear and leather exports, we are already on the road to a higher market share in WANA from the current 3.78 per cent this year,” Leekha said.
According to CLE data, Indian footwear and leather exports to WANA in 2021-22 fiscal was at AED 677.30 million ($180.40 million), out of the total global exports of $4,872.70 million.
“In the WANA region, the UAE and Saudi Arabia are the major markets,” Leekha said. Indian footwear and leather exports to the UAE grew by 31.72 per cent during the first half of 2022 to AED 387.4 million ($105.48 million) compared to $80.05 million in 2021-22.
Exports to Saudi Arabia grew to $28.56 million this year from last year’s $23.23 million, up by 22.94 per cent.
“We are emerging out of the pandemic slowdown when exports declined by 28 percent in 2020-21. However, we have recovered significantly in the last fiscal with exports registering a growth of 32 per cent overall, and the growth trend is continuing this year as well,” Leekha said.
