War of words between Pakistan tanners and leather garment makers intensifies
The chairman of the Pakistan Leather Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PLGMEA), has poured cold water on most of the claims made last week by his counterpart at the Pakistan Tanners Association (PTA), (see yesterday’s leatherbiz.com story ‘Pakistan tanners call for government help’).
In a statement issued yesterday, chairman Fawad Ijaz Khan called into question the assertion made by the PTA's S. M. Naseem, that finished leather exports in September and October were down 25% on the year before. Given that the decline for the July-October quarter was only 11%, this was hardly likely to have been the case, Ijaz Khan observed. By comparison, leather garment exports were down 45% during the same period, he said
The PLGMEA chairman was equally scathing of the tanners’ claims of a 20% drop in the average price paid by the garment producers for their finished leather, stating that the real figure was likely to be no more than 5%. Moving on to the PTA’s claim that leather garment exports among its main markets of China, India and Türkiye had fallen by between 20% and 50%, Ijaz Khan said that his own organisations' figures showed a 9% reduction for Türkiye and 17% reduction for India, (it was still trying to determine the figure for China at the time of Fawaz’s statement).
The chairman said that further to a meeting on Saturday (November 16) between PLGMEA representatives and Mirza Qamar Baig, secretary commerce, the association would now be providing the ministry with import/export figures, showing the industry's position in the international marketplace. These would be used to devise a strategy to help his members tackle the sharp decline seen in their exports, Fawad said.
