Pakistan's leather sector exports fell by 18.6% to $78.452 million in January, from $96.382 million in December 2005. This decline has been mainly attributed to a fall in the volume of finished leather exports which decreased by 15.38% and leather garments which declined by 18%.
A breakdown of data produced by Pakistan’s Bureau of Statistics showed that the country exported tanned leather worth $16.782 million, leather goods worth $53.243 million and footwear valued at $8.427 million compared with $19.832 million, $66.758 million and $9.792 million respectively in prior month.
However on a more positive note, Pakistan’s total leather exports for the period July 2005-January 2006 increased significantly to reach $644.129 million compared with $539.797 million in the corresponding period of 2005, an increase of 19.32%. Although exports of finished leather fell by 15.31% to $152.180 million from $179.689 million in the comparable period a year earlier, exports of leather goods (which included leather garments and leather gloves) increased 42.63% to $418.228 million, compared with $293.231 million in the same period in the prior year. Footwear exports also increased to 9,102,000 pairs worth $73.721 million (including leather footwear worth $63.699 million, canvas footwear $2.515 million and other footwear $7.507 million) compared with 9,371,000 pairs at $66.877 million in the comparable period in 2005 – an increase of 10.23%.
