Foreign buyers cancel visits to Knp leather units
KANPUR: The emergence of the new coronavirus variant Omicron overseas has led to the Kanpur leather industry seeing a high traffic of emails from buyers, cancelling their visits to India. No case of the Omicron variant has been detected in India so far.
Similarly, Kanpur industrialists dealing in finished leather and leather goods have largely put their visits, particularly to Europe, on hold. The visits were planned for in the period starting before Christmas, during which the maximum orders are placed with the leather exporters who have registered a negative growth in the last two years.
Taj Alam, former chairman of the Council for Leather Exports (CLE), said the buyers were hesitant to go ahead with the visits scheduled for the next three months.
“I was expecting several buyers. They all have called off their visits, unsure how the situation will unfold globally,” he said.
For this very reason, the Indian Leather Producers’ Association fair that was slated to open in Kolkata in January next year has been converted into a virtual one.
There is no clarity on whether or not the important “Madras Fair” (India International Leather Fair in Chennai) would be organised in January 2022, said exporters.
The same is the situation in Germany where the Spoga fair, which has participation from buyers and exporters the world over, was struggling to sell display stalls. Almost half of the exporters have not booked stalls. The Spoga fair is held each year in the first week of February in Cologne, said Alam.
The visits planned to Moscow (Russia), South Africa, Italy, Germany and UK to showcase the new products have been cancelled in bulk, said Shariq Alvi, managing director of a travel company that handles exporters and their overseas visits.
The Omicron scare in the past two weeks has further hit the industry that, as per CLE, has witnessed a 60% loss in sales and production in the wake of the Covid pandemic.
“Just 40% business is left for us to navigate. It may us take years to recover if a third wave hits,” said Javed Iqbal, chairman of CLE, from Italy.
“Some of us are going to the buyers, putting ourselves at risk. We are a handful, but doing the best to survive,” he said.
According to the data available with exporters, all the sectors of the industry have seen negative growth expect for saddlery which has recorded 10% positive growth.
Other than finished buffalo leather, Kanpur controlled 60% of the total exports, but this has seen negative growth, the exporters who did not wish to be named, said. Shoe manufacturing, leather gloves, bags and garments all have registered negative growth between 5% and 15%, they said.
In order to tackle the situation, the top export houses have opened 38 corporate offices in Dubai in the past one month to stay afloat. The buyers who were unable to come to India could go to Dubai where they are shown the samples and they could place the order.
“The virtual system was not working for us. That was the only alternative for us to explore. Let us see how successful it is,” said Mohd Abid, an exporter.
Dubai has given the exporters an added advantage, issuing a multiple entry visa for a period of five years rather than the earlier one of three months.
“It is morale boosting and I believe it will help in attracting buyers at a third destination,” he said.