(From right) R Selvam, Executive Director, Council for Leather Exports (CLE), and Abdul Wahab, Regional Chairman, South CLE, at a press conference in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, on Saturday, January 31, 2026.
| Photo Credit:
BIJOY GHOSH
Despite the US‘ tariffs on Indian goods, the Indian leather and footwear industry aims to maintain a flat growth or a marginal drop in export growth for the current fiscal. Last fiscal, the industry reported exports of $5.5 billion. This year, it should be of the same value or around $5.25 billion, said R Selvam, Executive Director, Council for Leather Exports (CLE).
The India-EU Free Trade Agreement is a major boon to the sector as EU is the largest market contributing for 43 per cent of exports. The FTA with zero per cent import duty in EU for footwear and leather sector will open-up new opportunities for exporters and will help in achieving the envisaged export target of $14 billion by 2030, he told newspersons while announcing the India International Leather Fair to be held in Chennai from February 1 to 3.
Focus Product Scheme
Selvam said the Council has urged the Centre to implement the Focus Product Scheme for the entire footwear and leather sector, covering all products and critical inputs and raw materials. This is to develop the entire production eco-system and to attract national and overseas investments. Implementation of this scheme is important to achieve a turnover of $50 billion by 2030 ($36 billion domestic and $14 billion exports) from present $24.6 billion achieved in 2024-25 ($19 billion domestic and $5.6 billion exports), he said.
M Abdul Wahab, Regional Chairman (South), CLE, said that the last six months have been very hard on the leather industry, especially with the US tariffs from August that affected the industry badly. However, the resilience and the support from the government helped the industry to manage over the crisis so far. The government has been hand-holding and directing the industry to non-US destinations and organised trips to the UK, Russia, European countries and the Far East, he said.
Despite the 50 per cent tariff from the US, till November the industry was growing at 1 per cent over last year. “Our industry has such a big resilient factor,” he said.
Game changer
The India-EU FTA will be a game changer for the industry. The EU contributes nearly 43 per cent of the export segment basket. The FTA will open up the entire region and will help in exploring new markets. “This will be a game changer and help achieve the $14 billion export target by 2030,” he said. “We need to have this kind of FTAs with the US. If this happens, it would be a double engine growth for the leather industry and all the labour-intensive industries,” he added.
On the leather industry in Tamil Nadu, Selvam said an investment of nearly ₹12,000 crore, providing employment to around 1.35 lakh people, has already been committed.
The leather fair is likely to attract more than 425 national exhibitors and 67 exhibitors from abroad, says a release.
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Published on January 31, 2026