The export volume of China's leather industry reached US$23.2 billion in 2003, up 19 percent year on year.

China's leather sector notched up a good performance last year and will maintain the fast growth in the next few years, a leading industry official said on February 6.

"As a pillar industry of the country's light industrial sector, the leather industry maintained a rapid growth in 2003," said Niu Jianguo, deputy director of the Bureau of Economic Operations of the National Development and Reform Commission.

According to the bureau's statistics, the industry's 16,000 major enterprises, each with an annual sales volume exceeding 5 million yuan (US$605,000), registered 210.3 billion yuan (US$25.4 billion) in gross industrial output value last year, a year-on-year increase of 20.9 percent.

The import and export volume of major leather products totaled US$26.4 billion in 2003. The industry's export volume increased by 19 percent last year to US$23.2 billion, accounting for 5.3 percent of the country's total exports, and ranking first among all light industry products.

"China has become the biggest leather products producer in the world," said Niu.

The nation produced nearly 500 million square meters of leather and about 6 billion pairs of shoes last year.

A plentiful supply of raw materials will support the industry's further development, Niu said.

Statistics show that China has the biggest resources of pigskin and sheepskin in the world, and its cowskin supplies rank it third.

But Niu pointed to some problems which continue to plague the industry, such as the small proportion of high value-added products and cut-throat competition among manufacturers, especially exporters.

These issues will have to be resolved to ensure the industry's healthy development, Niu said.

In order to promote the popularity of China's mid and high-range leather products in the world market, the China Leather Industry Association plans to launch the English version of its certification trade mark "Genuine Leather Mark," said Zhang Shuhua, vice-president of the association.

(China Daily February 7, 2004)