A delegation of more than 20 leather industry executives will visit Russia this month to seek investment and take advantage of growing export opportunities.
The three-day visit will begin on August 26.
Leather Export Council Executive Director R Selvam said India is currently exporting leather products worth $60-80 million, but the figure is low as there are huge opportunities in Russia.
“We will also participate in an international trade fair, Euro Shoes Premier Collection, in Moscow. We will take a delegation with the aim of attracting investment and technological collaboration in the tanning and product manufacturing sector,” Selvam told PTI.
He said there are huge export opportunities in areas such as garments, leather goods and footwear.
Although there are payment problems in Russia due to sanctions from Western countries over the war between Russia and Ukraine, exporters operating in rupees can ship goods.
Exports of leather, leather products and footwear increased from USD 44.84 million in 2022-23 to USD 62.48 million in 2023-24.
However, exports declined to USD 14.21 million during April-June this fiscal year, from USD 16.34 million in the same period last year.
“The main problem of this fall is the payment problem, namely the non-issuance of BRCs (bank realization certificates) by banks,” he said, adding that the US OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) has imposed sanctions on Russia’s SEBR Bank.
Due to sanctions, many Indian banks are not issuing BRCs for payments from Russia, he added.
India and Russia are discussing keeping trade in local currencies and reducing Moscow’s non-tariff barriers to boost bilateral trade.
India and Russia have set a target of increasing bilateral trade to $100 billion by 2030.
India is focusing on various sectors such as electronics, besides addressing non-trade barrier issues in areas such as shrimp and pharmaceuticals, to boost exports to sanctions-hit Russia and move towards achieving this goal.
Currently, bilateral trade amounts to about 67 billion dollars.
India’s exports to Russia stood at $4.3 billion in 2023-24, while imports were $61.4 billion, driven by crude oil. The trade deficit was $57.1 billion. The share of crude oil and petroleum products in imports was 88%.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First published: August 19, 2024 | 1:06 PM IS
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