Here's another effect of the growth of the middle class indeveloping countries like China: When wages and other production costs go up,companies start sourcing products from abroad -- just like those pesky USgarment brands.
As a national daily reports, India's leather industry isbeginning to reap the benefits, as rising production costs and labour troublein China have forced companies there to start buying from Indian factories.
"The first indication of this (trend) came during theShanghai Leather Fair when Indian manufacturers managed to sell goods,especially leather garments, to China," the paper quoted Rafeeque Ahmed,chairman, Council for Leather Exports, as saying. Indian leather companies havebeen participating in the fair for the last two years and have seen a clearincrease in sales to their Chinese counterparts, the paper said.
In 2011-2012, the Indian industry exported leather productsworth $4.9 billion, the highest ever.
But it's a funny trade for India. Working with leather isdeemed "polluting" by the Hindu caste system, and for centuries theactual work was deemed fit only for Muslims and untouchables. Moreover, cowslaughter is banned in all but one or two states, so the industry survives onthe (possibly fictional) practice of using only animals that die of naturalcauses.
As Andrew Buncombe writes that hasn't stopped the killing.But it's created a lucrative cattle-smuggling trade from India to Bangladesh.
"The story of the annual smuggling of an estimated 1.5million cattle says much about modern India “ about the sometimes hypocriticaltreatment of supposedly sacred cows, the political power of right-wing Hinduismand the corruption that allows the £320m illegal trade to flourish,"Buncombe writes. "But ultimately this story is about supply and demand.Hindu-majority India has an estimated 280 million cows but killing and eatingthem is legal in only a handful of states. Meanwhile, Muslim-majority Bangladesh,where beef is eaten with relish, suffers from a shortage of cattle. Half of thebeef consumed in Bangladesh comes from its large, western neighbour."
True enough. But it's not just beef. It's also leather, atrade that Daniel Pearl wrote perceptively about in a foreign journal beforehis murder.
"India is actually a major producer and consumer ofleather, and only some of it comes from goat, sheep and buffalo," Pearlwrote back in 2001. "With a population that is an estimated 80% Hindu,India slaughters 14 million cattle a year, making it the world's fifth mostactive cattle killer, according to the United Nations Food and AgricultureOrganization. Government tax breaks have helped make leather of all kinds oneof India's biggest exports."
