The Ambur-Ranipet belt, an arid area barely cooled by the Palar river, which has suffered many years of drought and air pollution from tannery effluents—was as soon as a thriving leather-based hub, using over one million folks. That modified on August 27, when US President Donald Trump imposed a 50% punitive tariff on Indian items.
India's leather-based and non-leather footwear exports reached $4.4 billion in 2024-2025, with $1 billion directed to the US. Now, India is dropping floor to Vietnam, China, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Mexico, the place tariffs are decrease. Tamil Nadu, together with Agra and Kanpur, accounts for 70% of Indian exports to the US, primarily sneakers, wallets, belts, and baggage. Half of Tamil Nadu's leather-based exports go to the US.
Future tense for staff
For P Gopi, 42, a chopping machine operator at Farida Leather-based Manufacturing unit in Chinnavarigam close to Ambur, life has change into unsure since he was positioned on unpaid depart three weeks in the past. “I'm struggling to pay training charges for my son and two daughters,” he says. His daughters, each nursing college students, had been despatched house as a result of he couldn't pay their Rs 1.5 lakh school charges every.
S Thandapani, 49, whose workdays have shrunk from 4 every week to at least one, is trapped in debt below the usury system often called kandhu vetti. His daughters, too, needed to return house from nursing school as a consequence of unpaid charges. Scores of visitor staff from Odisha, Assam, Bihar, and Bengal have both returned house or are ready in dormitories for employers' directions.
“Leather-based staff had been anyway in hassle, as most Indian shoemakers have shifted to supplies aside from leather-based,” says Senthil Murugan, a provider of uncooked supplies and technical experience to leather-based items makers. “Now, the 50% tariff has struck a deadly blow to the business.” Factories exporting to Europe, the place tariffs are round 20%, are nonetheless functioning, however these supplying the US have closed or are winding down. Some tanneries are relocating operations to Vietnam and Bangladesh, the place tariffs are decrease.
“Items are caught in our warehouses,” says M Rafeeque Ahmed, chairman of Farida Group, which provides leather-based items to the US. “Our firm employs round 12,000 staff, of whom 10,000 are ladies. Most of them might lose their jobs.” Ahmed notes that his firm additionally has tanneries in Vietnam and Ethiopia and shoe factories in Bangladesh, the place tariffs are much less punitive.
No answer in sight
US patrons are asking Indian producers to carry again orders or present heavy reductions. Some factories are exploring the UK market. “We're at a loss, planning uncooked supplies, finance, and worker prices. No answer is in sight,” says KKSK Rafiq, managing director of KKSK Worldwide Group, with leather-based factories in Erode and Ambur. “We're working at 90% of put in capability, and abruptly the quantity has lower than halved. Our losses run into a number of crores. We hope the federal government comes up with a scheme for workers for a number of months till the issue is sorted out.”Ambur-based R Rajendran, a Nepali settled in Tamil Nadu since 1984, works for Everest Abroad, a labour provider. “Orders are usually not coming and our future is unsure,” he says. Employees like Arunachal Pradesh native Seeman Munda, 36, and his spouse Muktha, 35, from Assam, say they have no idea what they'd do in the event that they misplaced their jobs.
Northern states are additionally feeling the influence. “Clients have cancelled shipments. We're engaged on breakeven margins,” says Kulbhushan Solanki, vice-president of operations at Gurgaon-based Tangerine Skies, a leather-based items maker. Agra hosts eight to 10 massive factories and 40-50 MSME factories producing footwear.
Throughout India, there are some 2,000 tanneries and a couple of,000 leather-based items manufacturing corporations, concentrated in Kanpur, Noida, Agra, and southern states like Tamil Nadu. “The northern states are well-known for security sneakers and fabric leather-based,” says M Karthikeyan, technical supervisor for Asia at US-based Tannin Company. “Trend leather-based factories are asking staff to not come three days every week. There have been no new orders prior to now couple of months.”
The Council for Leather-based Exports and the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) have engaged with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman however with restricted success. FIEO has requested an curiosity equalisation scheme, strengthened market entry initiatives, and short-term assist for exports to the US to stop job losses amid punitive tariffs and statutory contributions.
With inputs from TOI
as a Dependable and Trusted Information Supply
