Crackdown On Leather Units Hits Jobs, Exports Despite PM Modi's Goal

A government crackdown on Muslim-dominated abattoirs and the trade of cattle dragged down India's exports of leather shoes by more than 13 per cent in June, as leading global brands turned to China, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Pakistan to secure supplies.

The drop in exports of shoes and leather garments comes as a setback for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has sought to create millions of jobs by more than doubling the leather industry's revenues to $27 billion by 2020.

Emboldened by the victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2014 general election, Hindu hard-liners became more assertive in their calls for a clamp-down on both the meat and leather industries, which are largely run by Muslims, who make up 14 per cent of the population.

"The writing was already on the wall," Nazir Ahmed, CEO of shoemaker Park Exports, told Reuters by phone from the shoe-making hub of Agra. "We have killed the goose that laid the golden egg."

India, the world's second-biggest supplier of shoes and leather garments, exports nearly half its leather goods, with overseas sales estimated at $5.7 billion in the 2016/17 fiscal year to March, down 3.2 per cent from a year earlier. Footwear exports fell more than 4 per cent in April-June, to $674 million.

In March, after being appointed chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state and a major leather exporter, Yogi Adityanath, a firebrand Hindu monk, ordered a closure of abattoirs operating without licenses. Hindus consider cows as sacred.

Slaughterhouse owners complain that much of India's meat and leather trade takes place in the informal sector, and it is hard to get licenses, especially for smaller units.

In May, citing cruelty to animals, the central government banned the trade of cattle for slaughter, and restricted livestock sales only for agricultural purposes such as ploughing and dairy production.

But the Supreme Court overturned that order, citing the hardship the ban had caused. That has not brought relief as repeated attacks on trucks carrying cattle still rankle the leather trade.

"The Supreme Court has allowed the resumption of trade for cattle, but the ground reality is that cow vigilante groups continue to be active and no one wants to risk his life by transporting cattle," Ahmed said.

Deterred by a clutch of measures that squeezed the supply of leather, a key raw material, brands like H&M, Inditex-owned Zara and Clarks, cut back their orders to India, said M Rafeeque Ahmed, a leading shoe exporter from Chennai and former president of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations.

"We lost orders because our buyers were sceptical of our ability to meet their requirements. Instead, most buyers moved to rival suppliers in Asia and southeast Asia," he said. A spokesman for the Trade Ministry declined to comment.

Earlier this year, a Finance Ministry report said India should sign more free trade agreements, make tax, and labour reforms to drive leather exports, which offer “tremendous opportunities for (the) creation of jobs

The industry is also grappling with the national Goods and Services Tax, introduced in July, which has pushed up production costs by 6-7 per cent, exporters said.

The crackdown also hurt day-workers employed at shoe and garment making units and hit leather supplies, forcing manufacturers to import hides from the United States, Australia, and some European nations, raising the cost of production and squeezing margins.

Many tanneries, as a result, have run out of leather. "My business has come to a standstill because I don't have any inventory at all. Most large shoemakers are importing hides now," said a tannery owner, who asked not to be named so as to avoid retaliation from cow vigilante groups.

Nearly a third of the roughly 3 million-strong workforce, mostly lowly-paid casual workers employed in the leather sector, have lost their jobs in the past six months, according to six shoemakers and two tannery owners interviewed by Reuters for this article.

Since most states have outlawed cow slaughter, the supply of leather largely comes from the legal slaughter of buffaloes whose skins are used in many leather goods.

"Everyone must abide by the rule on cow slaughter and respect sentiments, but by choking the supply of other animal hides, we have nearly killed a thriving industry," said Ahmed of Park Exports.

© Thomson Reuters 2017

Source: NDTV - Click link here - October 4, 2017

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Lend us a helping hand, Leather Industry urges Government

The leather industry in Vellore district is one of the largest in the country, and it is looking to the State government for help with resources and give a boost to the infrastructure.

Areas in Vellore district, particularly Ranipet, Melvisharam, Ambur and Vaniyambadi, are home to hundreds of leather manufacturing units. Nationally, if the whole State accounts for 45 per cent of leather exports, Vellore’s share stands at 30 per cent, according to M. Rafeeque Ahmed, chairman of Council for Leather Exports.

“When it comes to leather exports, Vellore is the largest contributing district. One of the biggest problems faced by the sector here is environment related. In many States, the government contributes to enable leather industries to adopt and implement a zero-liquid discharge system,” he says.

While industries get funding from the Centre for the implementation of the system, the Tamil Nadu government, Mr. Ahmed says, should contribute funds for bringing in a permanent solution.

Another crucial requirement for the leather sector is continuous power supply. To boost exports, the State government should intervene and get the Chennai Port-Maduravoyal elevated expressway built fast, he adds.

“The works have been stalled for nearly five years. If this is completed, there will be 24-hour movement of container lorries. Presently, lorries are allowed into the port after 10 p.m. and this is leading to queuing of vehicles. The project will breathe life into the port.”

Water shortage

S. Faiyaz Ahmed, honorary secretary of Ambur Tanners Association, also insists that the government should invest in the sector. “We are facing a water shortage in Vellore. We recycle processed water and reuse it. Currently, we are able to recycle 70 per cent water, and want to take this to 90 per cent. This requires a lot of investment, and we need the State government’s investment to take this forward.”

Of the total exports, Vellore alone accounts for Rs. 5,000-Rs. 6000 crore worth of products.

“Many foreigners visit places such as Ranipet, Ambur and Vaniyambadi. The municipalities do not have sewage treatment plants and sewage overflows onto the roads in many areas, and this does not give a good impression,” he says. The government, Mr. Faiyaz Ahmed adds, should provide special attention for towns that generate employment and foreign exchange and establish proper infrastructure such as STPs and roads.

According to him, the town of Ambur contributes Rs. 14 crore annually to the Employees’ State Insurance Scheme. But, the people here do not get to enjoy the benefits.

“Only two ESI hospitals in the State — at Chennai and Salem — performed major surgeries,” he points out. “The ESI dispensary at Ambur should be upgraded and equipped to perform major surgeries.”

 Source: THE HINDU

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Fleshing Energy by Lian Chawii of Down To Earth

Tanneries in Tamil Nadu now use the fleshings produced by them to generate electricity published on Oct 31, 2001 | From the print edition - http://www.downtoearth.org.in/node/17142

THE tanneries in India have a reputation that they can do without. In Vellore, Tamil Nadu, the tanneries are working to save their reputation by generating green electricity . They have set up a biomethanation plant which uses the fleshings produced by them to generate electricity for its common effluent treatment plant (CETP). By installing the plant the tannery has been able to do two things -- one, reduce the stench of putrefaction and pollution that the fleshings used to produce, and two, generate electricity from waste.

In India, there are around 3,000 tanneries and more than one third of them are located in Tamil Nadu. These tanneries, mainly concentrated in Melvisharam, process 300,000 tonnes of hide and skin per year and generate around 140 tonnes of fleshing per day. Fleshings are the flesh scrap generated during the process of conversion of skins and hides into leather. With proper means of disposal absent, these fleshing -- a health hazard -- are often thrown indiscriminately, creating an obnoxious smell and an unsightly appearance.

Earlier, the fleshings were used to manufacture glue, but the market for it declined with the emergence of synthetic glue. They were then disposed in landfills, but this contaminated the groundwater, causing the total dissolved solids in groundwater to go as high as 4,900 mg per litre in certain areas, which is about ten times beyond the permissible level. Incineration too had its own problems. "The quantity was too large to manage, it gave an obnoxious odour," says Alwar Ramanujam, assistant director, department of environmental technology at the Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI) in Chennai.

But with the biomethanation plant in place, the people living in the tanneries' vicinity will be able to live in a less polluted environment. The capital cost of the plant is Rs 1.57 crore. The Union ministry of non-conventional energy sources has paid 60 per cent of it, with United Nations Industrial development Organisation providing another 17.5 per cent. The Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency and other beneficiaries have met the remaining cost. "The concept was new to India, so everyone was apprehensive in the beginning," says Ramanujan.

The biomethanation plant, which began operation in January 2000, is designed by a French engineer, Michel Aloy and maintained by around 15 tanneries with the technical assistance from CLRI . It has two digesters of 130 cubic metre capacity and is designed to process five tonnes of waste per day -- three tonnes of fleshings and two tonnes of primary sludge from the treatment plant. The fleshings and other solids are collected daily by trucks from the tanneries and deposited at the plant. The fleshings are then minced to peices of about six micron diameter and then mixed with the primary sludge. After it is homogenised, the mixture is fed into a feed chamber.

The primary sludge from the CETP , which contains 90 per cent liquid, is used to run the plant, thus solving the need to use large quantities of clean water. Operating a biogas plant usually requires equal amount of water and fleshing. "Fortunately, the fleshings also contain around 80 per cent liquid," says P A Shanmugan, senior scientist at CLRI .

From the feed chamber, the substrates are transferred to the first digester. It takes 26 days to fill both the digesters, after which five cubic metres of the substrate is taken out from the second digester and a similar amount is added to the first digester. The fleshings are retained in the digester for 26 days. Biological process then takes place inside the digester at 32-34 C. The bacteria converts organic pollutant to methane. A safety valve releases the gases produced. Apart from lime, which is used to neutralise the acidic content of the flesh, no chemicals are used. The remaining scum is taken out by a centrifugal pump, which separates the solids from the liquid, from the top of the digester. The solid material is then directed back to the bottom of the digester.

The plant generates around 312 cubic metres of gas and 1,200 kwh of power daily, out of which 250 kwh is used to operate the plant. The remaining 950 kwh is used to meet the partial requirement of the CETP . According to Shanmugan, the CETP consumes 7,500 kwh of energy per day.

Though there are around 36 tanneries in the locality that generate a total of around 12-13 tonnes of fleshings per day, the plant can take only upto five tonnes right now. But plans are afoot to set up more on the same lines.

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