CLIA, the China Leather Industry Association, confirmed that the slowdown of exports has accelerated in the second half of 2015, with the overall export value in the year reaching 86.13 billion US dollars, resulting in a 3.1% decline. According to the same source, footwear exports, declining by 5.1%, accounted for 59.4% of exported value.

The export figures in the first two months of the current fiscal year are not very optimistic, as the total exports value declined by 21.1% year-on-year to 12.29 billion US dollars. CLIA pointed out that a weakness in creativity and a focus on low-end products are damaging the potential growth of the Chinese leather industry, which can be worsened by the lost of low production costs advantage and the relocation of industry to southeast Asia and Africa countries.

CLIA also pointed out that the fundamentals of the Chinese economy remain unchanged, which allied to the huge potential internal market, and complete industrial chain, high effective production clusters and high skilled workers result in a strong foundation to support the industry's growth.