The Bangladesh footwear industry has requested the government to allow duty-free imports of footwear components and facilitate the industry’s production capacity.

Bangladeshi exporters hope that leather footwear exports to the European market will rise by up to 30% in the next few years.

President of the Bangladesh Finished Leather, Leather Goods and Footwear Exporters Association Tipu Sultan stated, "We expect significant buying orders from Europe as the EU has imposed antidumping duty against Chinese and Vietnamese shoes.”

Bangladesh ships 60% of its leather footwear to the EU, 30% to Japan and 10% to other parts of the world. Italy, France, Germany and England are the main importers of its footwear and there are 21 leather footwear factories operating in the country.