Leather Exporters to Visit Russia for Business Opportunities

New Delhi, Aug 19 (PTI) A delegation of over 20 leather sector executives will be visiting Russia this month to seek investments and tap growing export opportunities.

The three-day visit will start from August 26.

Council for Leather Exports Executive Director R Selvam said that at present India is exporting leather goods in the range of USD 60 million to USD 80 million, but it is low as huge opportunities are there in Russia.

"We will also participate in an international fair - Euro Shoes Premier Collection in Moscow. We are taking a delegation with an aim to attract investments, technology collaboration in tannery and product manufacturing," Selvam told PTI.

He said that huge export opportunities are there in areas like leather garments, goods and footwear.

Though there are payment issues in Russia due to Western countries' sanctions on account of the Russia-Ukraine war, exporters who are dealing in Rupee can ship the goods.

The export of leather, leather products and footwear rose from USD 44.84 million in 2022-23 to USD 62.48 million in 2023-24.

However, the exports have declined to USD 14.21 million during April-June this fiscal, from USD 16.34 million in the same period last year.

"The major issue for this decline is the payment problem that is non-issuance of BRC (bank realisation certificate) by banks," he said, adding there has been sanctions on SEBR Bank of Russia by US OFAC (office of foreign assets control).

Due to the sanctions, many Indian banks are not issuing BRC for the payments from Russia, he added.

India and Russia are discussing holding trade in local currencies and reducing non-tariff barriers by Moscow to boost bilateral trade.

India and Russia have targeted to increase the bilateral trade to USD 100 billion by 2030.

India is focussing on various sectors like electronics, besides taking up issues of non-trade barriers in areas like shrimp and pharma, to boost exports to sanction-hit Russia and move towards achieving this target.

At present, the bilateral trade stands at about USD 67 billion.

India's exports to Russia stood at USD 4.3 billion in 2023-24, while imports were USD 61.4 billion, driven by crude oil. Trade deficit was USD 57.1 billion. The share of crude oil and petroleum products in imports was 88 per cent.