The Indian Council for Leather Exports (CLE) is seeking government assistance for exporters in the leather sector due to the appreciation of the Indian rupee against the dollar in the last six months.

The rupee, which has been recognised as the ‘best performing Asian currency’, has already gained 9.1% this year which, whilst assisting importers, is being described as the single largest problem facing exporters. The leather industry fears that the sector may suffer as a result and CLE has requested a reduction in transaction costs in order to offset the impact of this.

Indian leather exports totalled $3.1 billion in 2006/07 compared with $2.7 billion in the previous year. Growth during the year led to the creation of 100,000 new jobs. The industry hopes to generate over half a million new jobs by 2010/11, reaching a total of 2.2 million employees.