Sole leather production continues to slip
According to the August figures for shoe leather production released by Pakistan’s Federal Bureau of Statistics, although the volume of upper leather continues to increase the sole leather manufacturing sector has failed to halt the decline that had already become evident in prior months.
In the first two months of the fiscal year (July to August), Pakistan produced 3,480,000m2 of upper leather, up 11.36% from the 3,125,000 m2 reported for the same period in 2006; however, the story was very different for sole leather. The country produced only 18 tons of sole leather in the two-month period, down 14.29% from the 21 tons reported in the same period last year.
On a more positive note footwear production is still on the up, increasing 15.68% to 4,323,000 pairs in the first two months.
