Shoemakers stagger to tap international market

LAHORE: Footwear manufacturers have yet to build their capacity and capability to carve out niche in the international market as they lack innovativeness, industry experts said on Saturday.

The experts said Pakistan has not achieved its actual footwear potential both in exports and domestic market. Footwear exports slid 13.24 percent to $95.35 million in the last fiscal of 2017.

“We are not innovative and mainly catering to demand of men’s leather shoes and slippers in international markets,” an analyst said. “Our shoe makers are not innovative and have to depend on buyers’ designs and software despite having best leather needed to make shoes and competent human resource.”

An industry expert said the country has a very few bright examples. Punjab government-backed incubator Plan-9 trained cobblers from Okara of Italian shoemaking techniques five years ago. And, they are receiving online orders from foreign buyers to supply high-priced footwear.

“But, we still lack technology to finish the shoes according to the requirements of the buyers,” an analyst said. “Through little efforts we can train numerous cobblers to make shoes for the global market. They know their job but need fine tuning and there would be no dearth of orders.”

As far as the local market is concerned the local industry has never realised that most of the Pakistanis cannot afford pure leather shoes. In fact, leather shoes are only popular in the upper middle class even in developed economies. “We are unfortunately not making affordable plastic, artificial leather or rubber shoes,” the analyst said. Such footwear is mainly imported from China.

It is indeed surprising that China is churning out millions of shoes and slippers from automated machines. Footwear is one of the industries that Chinese intend to relocate to the special economic zones developed under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Foreign shoe brands are appearing in the market. Most of the large textile stores now sell imported Chinese footwear under their brand names.

Shoe making in Pakistan is fragmented. One can find a cobbler at a remotest village of the country that caters to the needs of all inhabitants. Organised shoemaking is very small. Only 20 percent of the footwear industry is in the organised sector. Two largest producers Bata and Servis dominate the footwear market in Pakistan. These two are also the largest importers and exporters of footwear. Small producers in the informal market also cater to women footwear market. Ladies mostly buy their footwear from them or go for imported items.

Industry experts said Pakistan export textiles and rice, but the products are also available in surplus in the market. Likewise, the country exports sports goods, surgical instruments and carpets, but all of which are also available in the country. The country’s imports of these products are negligible or at least much less than our exports.

“So, we can develop footwear industry on the same line if government supports local makers,” an industry expert said.