As India pushes its ‘Local for Vocal’ strategy, the footwear industry believes the country has the potential to reduce reliance on imports and cater to the domestic demand by ramping up local production.

With the Covid-19 pandemic upending supply chains and businesses across the globe, players believe there is also an opportunity to make a stronger pitch for brand India and Indian-made footwear on the global stage.

Harkirat Singh, Managing Director, Aero Club, known for brand Woodland, said: “Certain measures can aid in strengthening the footwear ecosystem. We need to ensure as a country that we focus on quality manufacturing of designs on a par with global standards and in line with consumer demand. Efforts towards keeping pricing competitive, while providing value for money, will go a long way, too.”

Despite India being the second-largest producer of footwear in the world, many global brands having a presence in Indiastill rely heavily on imports of finished products. Even Indian footwear makers and homegrown brands still need to import certain parts used in making footwear due to lack of their availability in the country. “India needs to become self-reliant across categories. The footwear industry is dependent on imports for certain raw materials and the time has come to look at innovating by using local materials. Apart from this, regulations favouring export, will also help strengthen the Indian footwear industry,” Singh added.

Customs duty

In a bid to promote domestic manufacturing, the government hiked customs duty on footwear from 25 per cent to 35 per cent and on parts utilised to make footwear to 20 per cent from 15 per cent in February. However, international brands have said that there is lack of technical know-how and expertise required to make premium shoe products and that it is tough to move manufacturing into India swiftly.

Anupam Bansal, Executive Director-Retail, Liberty Shoes, pointed out that till the 1990s, the footwear sector in the country largely constituted of small and medium enterprises and only from year 2000 did it start attracting larger investments.

“There is a need to develop a more robust ancillary ecosystem for the footwear industry to achieve economies of scale and solve the issues of costs and availability of raw materials. The industry needs regulatory support in terms of land availability, labour policies, and other measures to ensure more manufacturing facilities with larger capacities can be set up,” he said.

“Also the footwear industry is broadly scattered across the country. We need to focus on developing a hub model,” he added.

Bansal said consumers often think imported products are better and a mindset shift in taking pride in Indian-made footwear products may also help in this regard. No wonder, since the Prime Minister’s address to the nation to on focus on self-reliance, many home-grown footwear brands have launched digital campaignsto remind consumers about their Indian antecedents and made-in-India products.

China’s share drops

In a webinar organised by the Confederation of Indian Footwear Industries in May, industry players pointed out that China’s share in the global footwear production dropped from 58 per cent in 2017 to 56 per cent in 2018.

However, countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia benefited most from this decline. Industry observers believe that since Indian exports are skewed towards leather footwear or handcrafted footwear, the country needs to increase focus on machine-made non-leather footwear to boost exports in this segment.

An industry player said that countries such as Australia and Japan are keen to reduce footwear imports from China and there is an opportunity for India to position itself as a global footwear destination.

Akhilesh Singh, Chief Operating Officer, Leayan Global Pvt Ltd, known for its brand Red Chief, said there is already a positive momentum among footwear companies and component makers to reduce reliance on imports as the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted supply chains.

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