The 13th Edition of the All Africa Leather Fair (AALF), which ran through 20th – 22nd April 2023 at Millennium Hall in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was concluded to have global business linkages in the leather sector.
Africa Leather and Leather Products Institute (ALLPI) Co-sponsored and co-organized this edition which is an Ideal Platform for Leather and Leather Products and allied Industries markets in Africa.
The Trade Fair was officially opened by HE. Melaku Alebel the Minister of the Ministry of Industry of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. His Excellency the Minister was accompanied by Excellencies and Director Generals from Concerned Institutions. Members of the Diplomatic corps, ALLPI officials and Experts, International Organizations and influential partners in the leather industry participated in the official opening event.
Africa Leather and Leather Products Institute (ALLPI) as part of its strategic activities, has supported 9 export-potential SMEs association representatives, and leather cluster representative in the leather sector from 9 ALLPI Member States, namely, Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Sudan was also invited but due to the current situation of the Country, they were not represented.
During the fair the leather players from the Member state were facilitated to visit the Tannery and sole factory in Ethiopia to create input output linkages. The fair helps to know their product status and knew the improvement areas for competitiveness.
Participants got the new idea of Marketing by learning from the participating country from different parts of the world and Understanding new quality dimensions.
ALLPI also organized a half-day workshop with participants and ALLPI experts to make awareness about the ALLPI’s initiatives to support the leather sector development in Member States and to share experiences of participants during the Leather Fair. During the discussion session, participants have appreciated the efforts of ALLPI towards supporting SMEs in exposing themselves and sharing experiences. Finally, the Leather Fair was concluded, allowing SMEs and association representatives with a great deal of information and experiences to implement and share to the Members at their respective countries.