India International Leather Fair will be held in Chennai, January 31 to February 3, 2020. The event aims at giving international buyers a chance to view products and trends in India. Alround 14 Indian brands will showcase footwear, handbags, and leather clothing on the runway which will be tailor made for the fashion show. The aim will be to win contracts to supply global brands. The event will see British footwear and leather goods brand Clarks participate for the first time.

The trade show has run for the last 35 years. The US-China trade war offers huge opportunities to Indian leather exporters to raise shipments to the United States. India is making efforts to boost leather exports. Despite the global economic slowdown, production and employment in the leather sector have increased. Also this is the only industry where exports of value-added products are almost five times more than the import of inputs/components/accessories and capital goods. The industry is undertaking a multi-pronged approach including product and market diversification, attracting investments, increasing capacities and also developing skills of workers so as to increase its global market share in the coming years. Currently, Europe accounts for about 70 per cent of leather exports from India.