The Indian leather industry is a thriving playground for micro, small and medium sized leather tanneries, with an organized setup that is helmed by reputed organizations like
Indian Finished Leather Manufacturers and Exporters and Subcontracting & Partnership Exchange India. The tanneries of the country import the leather from other nations, which has put the vegetable tanned variant on the backfoot. The scenario was considerably different in 1970s when the countrys manufacturers used to produce vegetable tanned leather that was provided to large organizations at competitive prices. But the advent of chrome leather proved to be its bane, along with the hefty 15% duty levied by the government on exporting this type of leather.
But, the tanneries based in the Southern Indian towns of Trichy and Dindugal have decided to make an effort to revive the vegetable tanned variant. This environment friendly product currently accounts for less than 5% of the exports of leather from India, but the international trend of using eco friendly products has shown a bright future to the small and medium sized tanneries. These tanneries are proposing to promote East India Leather or eI leather for ladies', men's, children's shoes by registering it with the Geographical Indications Registry of the Union Ministry of Commerce. It has already been registered and approved by the department and now holds the same status as Basmati rice, Darjeeling Tea and Kancheepuram Silk Sarees, all of which have unique and recognizable identities in the international market.
The name, East India Leather, is a reference to the colonial legacy of the product, dating back to the times when the small tanneries were owned or regulated by the East India Co. The unique process and craftsmanship required to produce this product have already been in existence since the 1900s. But the real challenge will be in promoting it in the international market and providing the same in large numbers with consistency of quality at competitive prices. The root of the problem is that the number of tanneries has come down rapidly in the past few years from 25 to 8!
The other challenge will be in warding off the heavy competition of foreign material, as the government has a free import policy and export duty of 15%. These factors would need to be altered to meet the tremendous demand of the international firms looking for environment friendly EI Leather compared to the existing demand of
goat, sheep, cow, buffalo, calf, kid leather India.
