Unichel demands to ban the export of leather from the country.

Vice-President of the Russian Union of Tanners and Shoemakers, General Director of the Unichel shoe factory Vladimir Denisenko sent a letter to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, in which he demanded that the government ban the export of leather from the country.

The rise in the exchange rate of foreign currency, Denisenko states, has already led to the fact that leather purveyors urgently reoriented to foreign supplies. “With such a rate of the euro and the dollar, it’s more profitable for firms that procure raw materials in Russia to send everything abroad - their revenues in rubles will be 60-70% higher,” he writes.

Many actually stopped the shipment of raw materials, and all leather factories have a huge gap in terms of supply of raw materials. And this is the main raw material for all enterprises of the shoe industry. He was already lacking - our association (3 factories - Orenburg, Zlatoust and Chelyabinsk) consumes 50 million decimeters per year. And then we are forced to buy half abroad - in South Korea, Turkey, Italy. And now, with this course, we simply cannot buy leather abroad, because shoes will not be sold at these prices. ”The installation of import substitution requires Russian shoes to be cheaper than products from competing countries. However, the shortage of raw materials causes a steady rise in prices - now procurers have already raised them by half for local factories. If the Russian tanners and shoe-makers refuse to purchase hides, the raw materials will not remain in the loser. All products will simply go abroad, because there is no regulation on its export.

“China produces 14 billion pairs of shoes a year,” continues V. Denisenko. - In Russia, 100 million are made, this is 100 times less. In China, the import duty on footwear is 25%, and in Russia - 7,5%, and according to the WTO rules, the duty will tend to zero. In Europe, the protective duty on Chinese footwear is 17-19%, our light industry is not protected by anything.

Each end Russian consumer is interested in banning the export of leather raw materials, since in this case the prices for Russian-made shoes will not depend on the dollar and euro exchange rates. Not doing this means not protecting your customer. ”

The main channel for the illegal export of hides from the countries of the Customs Union passes through Kazakhstan. Industrialists asked the chairman of the government to block him. If the federal authorities do not intervene in the situation, the country's leather and footwear industry will be left without basic work material. They will have to reduce output and, accordingly, staff.