Dear Global Leather Industry Colleagues,

 I want to draw your attention to the attached infographic that the Leather and Hide Council of America (LHCA) intends to send out and post on social media channels later today. We will accompany it with a press release that provides additional information about the industry and basic facts about the association. Using a new media tool we recently acquired, we will be sending this infographic and press release to a significant number of media contacts in fashion, footwear, sustainability and lifestyle media outlets. Currently, we have a target list of several hundred media outlets that will receive this information.

Only two of Tanzania’s eight tanneries are now operating, as they are unable to make a profit on leather, according to specialist local press.

S&V Africa Leather quotes Niaz Hirani, head of leather at tannery operator Industrial Promotion Services, who said the situation is so bad that most hides are now being dried and sold to West Africa as food, a local delicacy.

Tanners in East Africa have warehouses of hides they are unable to process, and might soon have to sell them for less than they paid to liquidate stock, he added.

Source: https://leatherbiz.com

The authorities in Botswana have said construction will start soon on a new leather park at Lobatse and could be ready to start production within 18 months.

At a recent seminar on the project, Lesitamang Paya, who is co-ordinating work on the leather park for the local authority, said that Botswana’s current cattle population of 1.8 million head would be unable to supply the volume of hides the site will need to operate efficiently.

He said his calculations show that 75 tonnes of hides per day will be needed as raw material for the leather park to operate well. He called on livestock farmers in Botswana to improve their herd management, starting immediately, to supply the hides required.

Around 60% of the raw material the new leather park will process will be bovine hides, he explained, with exotic skins, including ostrich and crocodile, making up the rest.

Mr Paya added that the leather park is also likely to consume two million litres of water per day. He said the project’s solution to this was to build the park close to an existing water resource, a sewerage treatment facility close to Lobatse. He explained that the plan was to extract water from here, treat it and use it in leather production. Wastewater from tanning operations will then be used at a nearby farm.

In addition, there will be a dedicated, secure landfill site for disposing of solid waste from the park.

Source: https://leatherbiz.com/

Ethiopian footwear manufacturer Anbessa has emerged as the successful bidder in an auction to acquire a tannery in Bahir Dar, around 500 kilometres north of Addis Ababa.

The former Habesha tannery operated from 2011 until April 2019, making crust for export markets. When it ceased production, banks moved in and arranged the auction to recoup some of the money the previous owners owed.

Anbessa has said it plans to buy new machinery, to take production as far as finished leather, which it intends to use in its own footwear manufacturing operations. It also said it will build a new water treatment plant at the site.

After securing ownership of the tannery, Bamlaku Demissie, general manager of Anbessa, said: “We’ve been buying finished leather from the different tanneries. Now we’ll make our own.”

Source : https://leatherbiz.com

At the recent All China Leather Exhibition in Shanghai, secretary general of the China Leather Industry Association, Chen Zhanguang, announced new guidelines that the agency has distributed to member companies regarding the correct use of the English term ‘leather’.

“These are only guidelines and not yet law,” Mr Chen said, “and it will take time for regulation to come in. But the All China Leather Exhibition is the best place to start implementing this practice.”

https://leatherbiz.com

Turkish tanners, leather chemicals and tanning machinery manufacturers have built strong ties with partners in Africa.

Companies in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Sudan and other parts of Africa have found willing buyers in Turkey of raw and semi-processed hides and skins.

In parallel, Turkish tanning machinery manufacturers and leather chemicals suppliers have been able to make sales among these African suppliers. “A new trading system is in operation,” industry commentators have said.

Source: https://leatherbiz.com

Traders from across Kenya have come together to call on the government to revise the 80% duty that is currently imposed on exports of raw hides and skins. They say that such a tariff on trade with other East African markets is damaging their businesses.

They made their case at the annual general meeting of the East Africa Hides and Skins Association. Following the meeting, chairperson Karuri Ngige said a more lenient tax system would open the sector to more tanneries and allow for existing ones to expand their markets.

She explained that the traders want tax to be calculated on the export value of local hides and skins, rather than on their total weight.

The Kenyan government implemented the high tax rate on raw hides and skins in an effort to encourage domestic value addition, although Ms Ngige argued that it has had little effect on the country’s leather value chain.

Source: https://leatherbiz.com/fullitem.aspx?id=151847

Ethiopian experts in the leather and footwear sector on Thursday hailed a Chinese-built research center, the first of its kind in Ethiopia, as an important boost to the country’s ambition in modernizing related products.

The Ethiopia-China Joint Laboratory at the Ethiopian Leather Industry Development Institute (LIDI) was built by a team of Chinese experts with high-end Chinese technologies from the Chinese Leather and Footwear Industrial Research Institute (CLFI).

The joint laboratory, which mainly embraced a tannery wastewater treatment plant, was designed to provide Ethiopian researchers with the latest laboratory technologies as the East African country aspires to fully exploit its abundant cattle population, LIDI officials told Xinhua on Thursday.

Source: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-04/04/c_137950764.htm

Chinese footwear group Huajian has signed a 15-year lease on an industrial park in Ethiopia, with buildings earmarked for shoe and leathergoods production.

Local press report that the Chinese conglomerate has ambitious plans for Jimma Industrial Park, which include setting up a coffee processing plant and creating 15,000 jobs.

The park is around 350km from the capital, and was constructed by China Communications Construction Company with an investment of $61 million, said reports.

Huajian already owns a large shoe manufacturing facility on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, and has also been in talks to set up factories in Nigeria.

Source: https://leatherbiz.com/fullitem.aspx?id=151601

A meeting of the East African Community’s (EAC) Leather Forum has taken place in Arusha, Tanzania, during which there were calls for the bloc to create a more easily accessible market for leather products.

The forum was convened by the East African Business Council (EABC). It brought together leather industry figures from Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.

Among the recommendations to come out of this meeting were the creation of a regional market for leather products and a more conducive business environment to promote local value addition in the leather sector. Those present also called for the implementation of a regional leather strategy to be fast-tracked.

The EAC Secretariat is in the process of developing a regional leather and leather products strategy, which would cover the period from 2019-2029.

Among the speakers at the forum was Beatrice Mwasi, secretary general of the Kenya Leather Apex Society, a new umbrella body launched in November. She urged the EAC leather industry to be more innovative and to improve branding. She also called for EAC partner states to offer incentives for value addition in the leather sector.

https://leatherbiz.com/fullitem.aspx?id=151478

THE East African Community (EAC) Leather Forum has urged the bloc to create readily accessible market for leather products. The forum has called for EAC to fast track the implementation of Regional Leather Strategy.

The forum was convened by the East African Business Council (EABC) and brought together over 40 industry champions in leather manufacturing from Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.

The forum has recommended for the creation of a readily accessible regional market for leather products and a conducive business environment to promote regional value addition in the leather sector. According to World Bank Kenya Leather Industry - Diagnosis, Strategy and Action Plan, Leather and Leather products are among the most widely traded agro-based commodities in the world.

The industry has a global estimated trade value of over US$ 150 billion a year, more than five times that of coffee.

Source: https://allafrica.com/stories/201905260019.html