SIALKOT: The Pakistan Gloves Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PGMEA) has urged the government to ban export of blue split leather “to save the gloves industry from collapse”.
Talking to the newsmen here, PGMEA chairman Shehzada Ibne Iqbal Syed said that shortage of split leather had drastically raised its price. “We have huge foreign orders of gloves, but due to unavailability of the material the business community is confronting multiple problems,” he said.
He said the export of blue split leather was hurting the industry since 2004-5.
Mr Iqbal said that around half of the 280 tanneries are utilising wet blue leather. It means, according to him, that 200,000 workers are facing severe problems.
Pakistan would lose its grip on the international gloves market if the situation persists, he said.
He pointed out that export of gloves amounts to about $330 million and the government should take action to salvage the industry.
The PGMEA, established in 1978, is the apex body of gloves industrial sector in the country.
