The Thai Leather Goods Association has said it expects the country’s leather exports to slide for the third consecutive year during 2003 to below last year’s level of Bt70 million ($1.7 million).

Already this year, exports of leather bags have fallen 30% in value to Bt10 billion ($237 million).

Chairman of the association, Yingkiat Liu attributed the decline to manufacturers moving to areas where labour costs are cheaper, such as China. Kongjeth Promnumpol, the association’s manager added that the leather industry had been impacted by the SARS epidemic and the Iraq war.

In an attempt to stem the decline, the association has joined forces with the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) of Thailand and the two organisations say they will hold roadshows promoting leather in Japan and the Philippines in the near future. A planned trip to Singapore however had to be postponed due to SARS.

In a separate development, the Thai leather bag company, Giacomo, yesterday announced that it plans to penetrate the Indian market. The firm already has a significant presence in Italy, France, Belgium, Australia, the UK, Germany, Luxembourg and Japan.

Giacomo’s managing director said the company plans to open a further four outlets in Thailand over the next two to three years and will expand its production capacity 20% to 6,000 bags per month in 2004.

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