India’s leather and footwear industry is suffering from rising input costs due to the ongoing Middle East crisis and is seeking import duty exemptions on essential raw materials, machinery and components.
Industry representatives have taken the issue to the Ministry of Trade and Industry, warning that the disruption has led to a sharp increase in the cost of many vital inputs by 40 to 60%.“The industry is facing a sharp increase in raw material and input costs – rising by 40-60% – due to the West Asian crisis,” an official told PTI.“In view of this, we have urged the government to provide import duty exemptions on vital inputs such as synthetic leather (PU coated fabrics), shoe components, metal accessories, leather and shoe machinery, threads, dies, toe puffs, eyelets, certain leather chemicals and packaging materials.”
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Besides tariff relief, exporters recommended early implementation of the FLOAT (Footwear and Leather Targeted Transformation) scheme, with coverage extending across the entire leather and footwear product chain, including raw materials, machinery and inputs.The industry has also pushed for duty-free imports of crust leather and finished hides as part of efforts to boost domestic manufacturing.
One of the main concerns for this sector is the impact of Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which has affected the movement of oil and gas ships. Since products such as PU leather, some rubber chemicals, adhesives, plastics and shoe soles are petroleum-based, supply disruptions have caused costs to rise significantly.Apart from oil-related materials, the local industry also depends on imports from China, Korea, Indonesia and Japan for many inputs.Imports in this sector decreased by 4.49% year-on-year to $938 million.On the export front, shipments of leather and leather products fell by 2.36% year-on-year to $4.26 billion in 2025-26. However, according to industry estimates, total exports could rise to $5.6 billion once the non-leather goods figures are added.Total exports from the sector, covering finished leather, leather footwear, shoe components, leather garments, leather goods, saddlery, belts, non-leather footwear, non-leather goods, fur and fur products, amounted to $5.57 billion in 2024-25, compared to $5.38 billion in 2023-2024 and $6 billion in 2022-2023.