The cost of poor hide and skin quality
04/01/2010
The leather sector in the Punjab province of Pakistan is suffering high levels of financial loss because of problems with the quality of local raw materials, according to a new study.
The details come from a joint study conducted by the former chairman of Pakistan Tanners Association (PTA), Agha Saiddain, and the former dean of the faculty of veterinary sciences at the University of Veterinary Sciences in Lahore.
The researchers took the livestock census figures of 2006 for the study. They found that the total production of goat skin in the province that year was just over 8 million and calculated that if all the goat skins had been of grade I, they would have had a value of around $4.70 per skin. However, according to the study, so many of the skins were of lower grades, their combined value was much lower, calculated at around $31.4 million.
Total sheep skin production in the province in the same year was around 2.5 million. In a similar way, if they had all been of Grade I, their combined value would have been $11.7 million. However, the proportion of lower grades was such that the skins only reached a combined value of $9.9 million.
Something similar happened with cattle hides. Tanners in Punjab processed a total of 2.9 million in the course of that year. Had they all been Grade I, the value would have been $74.1 million. In the end, the hides had a combined value of $58.4 million.
Agha Saiddian said the study put a cost on the skin problems tanners faced in the province and called on the government to help livestock farmers address the issue through education programmes and the distribution of vaccines.
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