The Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce (FPCCI) has demanded that the government imposes a ban on the export of wet blue splits in order to safeguard the domestic leather industry. Vice president of the FPCCI Arshad Alam said in a statement that wet blue was a primary material required in the manufacture of many value added goods in the Pakistan leather industry including garments, gloves, and footwear that are produced by many small manufacturers. He claimed that if the current export trend continues a shortage in supply to local industry could lead to the closure of many of the small facilities producing leather goods. The reason for this concern is due to exports increasing with the elimination of export duty, however, Mr Alam highlighted the fact that many other countries, including India, have imposed bans on wet blue exports in order to protect the domestic industry.

"After the elimination of export duty on wet blue split, our exporters started exporting this primary material in bulk quantity ignoring the fact that by transforming this bi-product into finished valued added items, they could earn almost twenty times higher than exporting a mere primary product," said Mr. Alam. He also added that Chinese manufacturers are importing wet blue split in bulk from Pakistan and by manufacturing value added goods are creating further problems for Pakistani manufacturers in the international market.

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