COMESA-Leather and Leather Products Institute (COMESA/LLPI), a Chartered and autonomous Leather Wing of COMESA, is Proud to announce that it has become a full member of the International Union of Leather Technologists and Chemists Societies (IULTCS).
IULTCS is a world-wide organization of professional societies, originally organized in London in 1897. The Union currently has 19 Member Societies and 7 Associate Members representing more than 300 individual members. The aims of the IULTCS are to foster cooperation between member societies, to hold congresses to further the advancement of leather science and technology, to form commissions for special studies and to establish international methods of samples and testing leather and materials associated with leather manufacture.
COMESA/LLPI’s membership of IULTCS is expected to further strengthen the COMESA region’s leather sector development activities through networking, R&D and exchange of the best available technologies, establishment of regular contact with professional leather societies around the world, and facilitation of cooperation between leather organizations. IULTCS also provides a unique forum, through its Testing Commissions, to bring together technical experts from around the world in order to establish common testing procedures.
COMESA region is a free trade area with nineteen member states, of which 10 States (Burundi, Eretria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe) are active members of COMESA/LLPI. The region is very important to Africa and the World in terms of the size of livestock herd (56% of Africa and 11% of the global population)and production of raw hides and skins (57% for Africa and 8.1 of the world). The leather business, determining effective leather sector development, however features deficiency in the region. COMESA’s contribution to global trade in these products is very weak and is estimated at 3%.
This is mainly attributed to the concentration in production and trade of non-value added commodities, such as hides and skins and semi-processed leather. The leather industry’s contribution to manufacturing output in the COMESA region is less than 1.0 percent. It is estimated that if this sector is properly developed Africa would earn an additional US$ 4 billion from world trade in leather and leather products to account for 12 percent of world trade.
COMESA/LLPI, is striving to enhance value addition and regional and global competitiveness of the leather industry through technology transfer, investment and trade promotion, productive capacity building, and inter-regional cooperation. To this effect, the Institute is pursuing Sharing of Knowledge, Adaptation and Adoption of innovations at various levels of the leather value chain.
The Institute’s Strategic Activities are designed to contribute towards the attainment of African Union Commission (AUC) Vision 2063 and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) that encompass poverty reduction, wealth creation, rural development and gender parity. COMESA/LLPI will strive to translate the potential benefits of IULTCS membership into actual and tangible gains to COMESA member countries. Click Here for More
