PTA chairman blames smuggling for export decline
The chairman of the Pakistan Tanners Association, Aziz Ahmed, has said that Pakistan’s leather exports sector, the second largest in the country, is in jeopardy due to the government’s policy to allow unabated export of livestock from the country.
Leather exports from Pakistan were valued at $1.22 billion during 2007-08. In 2009-10, the figure fell to $863 million – marking a 30% decline along with a 17.69% reduction in the average unit price of leathergoods. Mr Ahmed has said that the decline can be reversed and exports can be doubled in less than two years if the government collaborates with the leather industry.
Four factors have been blamed for the drop in leather exports. Higher raw material prices, poor tax structure and lack of basic infrastructure have had an effect, but the lack of a viable trade policy is the main cause, according to Mr Ahmed.
He believes that the smuggling of livestock across the Pakistan border to Afghanistan and Iran is a major concern. “Approximately 70-100 trucks of livestock are smuggled daily,” he claimed. “When we are short of agricultural commodities, the government places a ban on them, so why not for livestock?”
