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.