As a vast country neighboring China, Russia stirs up an eager in Chinese leather product dealers to have a try. Russia has a large market and a large leather market in particular. Currently, Russian leather market is in a nonstandard and immature status. As the largest buyer for Russian leather, Chinese leather dealers who have a clear idea about market price and future development trend can really make a fortune.

In terms of market, Russia is a country where fur dress is more popular than elsewhere. Russian people have a high demand for fur and fur coats. Russia consumes up to 10 million pieces of fur per year and has a huge consumer group consisting of about 100 million consumers. Russia is abundant in fur materials such as marten fur and fox fur, which creates favorable conditions for making fur coats. Russians have a longstanding favor for fur products and have gradually shaped a fur culture. Russian women like to exhibit the charm of their fur dress while Russian men take the possession of fur coats as a symbol for wealth and power. In recent years, Russia is experiencing political stability and economic growth. Russian people have achieved constant improvements in their living level and exhibit a greater favor for fur dress.

In terms of production capacity, Russia now has about 260 large and medium shoe production enterprises. Though Russia has experienced substantial growth in shoe production capacity in recent years, yet 70-80% of the shoe products in Russian shoe market still depend on import. In terms of market scale, Russian shoe market sells about 220 million pairs of shoes per year. Based on statistic figures from relevant Russian research institutions, China-made shoes are mostly cheap in price and quick in response to market demand, and these shoes are mainly sold in wholesale market or directly sold through ground stalls to meet the demand of most low-income Russian consumers; on the other hand, due to insufficient production materials, Russia-made shoes are relatively inferior in design and novelty and in 2004, Russia turned out no more than 60 million pairs of shoes, decreasing by 4% below 2003. Due to insufficient funds for leather enterprises, the utilization rate of fur processing capacity in Russia is no higher than 15-25% and the supply of Russian-made leather products is no higher than 25%. Faced with such a great market demand, major leather countries are thronging into Russia. To save their market space from becoming "a lair of foreign wolves", local leather enterprises in Russia have constantly implemented enterprise reform and investment programs to accumulate power to resist leather products from other countries. However, it may take at least several years after 2006 for Russian leather market to reach the current saturation level of our country. In other words, Russian market may sustain its current demand level for leather products for 5-6 years. This period is a prime time to open up markets there.

China is a generally recognized large leather producer in the world and is becoming a strong leather producer. Specifically, China is approaching the world's leading level in leather production process and product processing technology while China-made products are much cheaper than their counterparts from western countries, and can properly meet the purchase requirements of most Russian consumers. Some provinces and cities in China such as Xinji are organizing investment to open up markets in Russia, which undoubtedly represents a clever idea.