Sri Lanka’s first footwear and leather industry hub is coming up–and it’s the Eastern Province that shall be hosting it. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan footwear and leather exports too have jumped by a strong 28%!

“We are planning to set up Sri Lanka’s first footwear and leather industry city in the Eastern province” said the Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen on February 3 in Colombo.

Minister Bathiudeen was addressing the inaugural event of National Footwear and Leather Exhibition “Footwear and Leather Fair ‘17” at BMICH, Colombo on the morning of January 3.

“We welcome the strong Indian delegation to the ninth fair in this series. Our footwear and leather exports in 2016 increased by 28% in comparison to 2015 revenues to $140 Million showing strong growth trends. What we need to understand in this is that 84% of these exports were in footwear. The global footwear and leather market is expected to exceed $ 600 billion by 2020. The global footwear market is estimated to be around $ 370 billion by 2020.

The leather goods industry is estimated to reach $ 247 billion by that time. In a background of rising “middle class consumption” and demand for luxury goods across the world I believe that footwear has great promise for branding of Sri Lanka in international markets through a low cost export product. As the middle income population increases it is clear that the demand for designer footwear too would rise rapidly.

Even though Casual footwear is leading the growth at present with more and more people entering an active sports lifestyle demand for athletic and sports footwear too are driving this growth. As I explained at last year’s exhibition opening athletic footwear manufacturing is attractive due to the higher profit margins that it offers. Since levels and finish of raw material for athletic footwear is lower than fashion shoes their manufacturing costs are lower offering bigger margins in the market. In fact industry analysts say that sports footwear can give as much as 45% profit margins -the highest in footwear industry!” said Minister Bathiudeen and added: “Therefore I call Sri Lankan manufacturers and exporters again to pay closer attention to this sector and enter it by supplying more to established brands.

Realising the importance of the footwear industry in addition to supporting this exhibition series my Ministry has also initiated several projects to develop this sector. We are progressing well on establishment of a Footwear and Leather goods Training School at Sri Lanka Institute of Textile & Apparel Ratmalana. We have invested more than Rs 19 million for this project as of now. I also Obtained Cabinet approval for setting up a Dedicated Leather and Leather Goods Manufacturing Complex in Batticaloa District at an estimated cost of Rs. 450 Million.

More importantly we are planning to set up a footwear and leather industry city in the eastern province with Public Private Partnership. Realising that it is an important to protect local manufacturers of this sector we have increased the taxes on footwear imports and introduced duty exemption facilities for import of finished leather for manufacturing of Footwear and Leather goods products. I urge the footwear and leather sector of Sri Lanka to make use of these benefits and grow from strength to strength in their efforts.”