Prospect of footwear export looks bright

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Jasim Uddin Haroon
The country's footwear manufacturers see a bright future for their products mainly because of the prospect of procuring hide and skin at cheaper prices this year.
Rawhide and skin were sold between Tk 25 and Tk 30 per square foot this season.
Local shoemakers claimed that a large number of overseas buyers had already contacted them for buying an increased number of shoes from Bangladesh.
"A large number of overseas buyers including new ones are enquiring about our products after Eid-ul-Azha, believing that our products will be competitive in price due to lower cost of the raw materials," Md Saiful Islam, chairman of Bangladesh Footwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BFMEA) told the FE Saturday.
According to the BFMEA, around a dozen overseas retailers including, a number of them from the United States of America (USA) are enquiring about the prices of middle and high quality shoes.
Of the world's leading retailers, Timber Land and Bostania of the USA, Clark of the United Kingdom, Isetan, Takashuma and Tang of Singapore and ABC Mark of Japan have already communicated with the local shoemakers.
"Officials of Crastmark, a large retailer in Singapore, will visit our footwear factories from December 7," Mr Saiful added.
Chief of the BFMEA, a group of more than 55 shoe manufacturers, told the FE 'the buyers want assurance of consistency in supply and Bangladesh has no problem with that as there is a good stock of raw material.'
Footwear manufacturers use local finished leather and they expect to consume around 50 per cent of the country's leather output this year against around 35 per cent previously.
Local companies including Apexadelchi Footwear Ltd, Jenny's, Landmark, Leatherex, Bay Footwear, Picard Bangladesh, ABC Leather Goods have been producing both middle and high segment shoes for export.
Industry insiders said earlier Japanese buyers used to buy the bulk of Bangladesh products but this time many new buyers, especially from the USA and Singapore, are showing keen interest to import local shoes.
A senior official at the Jenny's Shoes told the FE: "We're getting regular queries mainly because of a massive shut down of tanneries in China."
He also said adoption of China plus policy by the US government and European embargo on Chinese and Vietnamese footwear are also pushing buyers towards Bangladesh.
Local shoe and leather goods manufacturers exported products worth US$ 204 million in 2008-09 fiscal.
The export earnings stood at $61 million in the first quarter of the current fiscal against the target of $ 246 million.