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Local shoes losing shine

Kawsar Khan
When fashionable Bangladeshi footwear is hitting global market, domestic market dependent local shoes are increasingly losing their clutches to low-cost and eye-catching Chinese shoes.
On the eve of Eid, various types of fashionable China-made shoes have flooded the local markets outshining local varieties what the local manufacturers say is making it very difficult for them to survive.
Local shoemakers blame that the Chinese shoes are grabbing the local market share with the advantage of under invoicing, which makes imported shoes cheaper than the local pairs.
"The small and medium shoemakers who are involved in manufacturing mid-priced or fashionable shoes can no more continue their business for round the year for a sharp fall in demand. Their main target is to recover losses during the Eid time. But now recovering the losses has become very difficult due to imported shoes," said Nasir Uddin, general secretary of Bangladesh Paduka ProstutkarakSamity (BPPS).
Although Chinese shoes are attractive, those are not durable, he said, adding that people buy these since they are cheaper than local shoes.
"If the shoes were imported withthe government-imposed 42.5 percent duty, we could be competitive against imported shoes. But most of the shoes arc penetrating the country through under invoicing," Nasir said.
Besides under invoicing, smuggled shoes from Myanmar are also talcing toll on the local ones, the sector people said.
The country's small and
mid-sized shoe manufacturers are failing to do well in the local market due to lack of policy support by, the government, industry insiders said.
According to government statistics, in fiscal year 2007-08 local footwear fetched US$ 169.60 million through export, marking a 24.76 percent growth over the previous fiscal.
Market players said although local brands are losing their shares to imported shoes in mid-priced and fashionable shoe segments, the local houses are still dominating the low-cost segment, mainly slippers.
They said between 15 and 20 percent people use imported shoes.
"Local companies make slippers by recycling old shoes,
and this is why their cost is low. This gives us a competitive edge over the imported slippers," said Helal Uddin, proprietor of Helal Plastic and Rubber Industries.
Most of the people of the country, mainly poor and rural people, use these slippers and low-cost shoes, who are bigger in number compared to the users of fashionable shoes, the sector insiders said.
The government announced withdrawal of tax on local shoes that cost below Tk 65 since only poor people use these, which is helping local shoes to get better market share, sector people said.
They said there are around 5, 000 shoe manufacturers in Dhaka but most of them are not registered with the govern-
ment since they cannot fulfil registration requirements.
"Most of the shoe making materials come from abroad as shoe accessories are not made locally," said Sirajul Islam, owner of local Rado Shoes.
Except for a few export-oriented and famous brands like Bata and Apex, most of the local shoe manufacturing units are small and their capital ranges from Tk 5,000toTk 1 crore.
"For the small companies it is not possible to set up accessory making units due to lack of fund," said Arifur Rahman Rashid, president of BPPS.
He also urged the government to provide fund to set up shoe accessories making units in the country to tap local and export markets.
kawsar@thedailystar.net