Brazil looking for 50% increase in leather exports
08/07/2010
Both organisations believe the South American country can achieve export revenue of $1.7 billion this year from hides, skins, wet blue, crust and finished leather. This would represent an increase of 51% on the figure for 2009.
Under the renewed agreement, CICB expects to receive funding of around $4 million a year to help it boost Brazil's leather exports. It will aim to do this by encouraging more of CICB's 800 member companies to move into export markets, promote diversification of products and of target markets among exporting companies and increase international marketing of the Brazilian leather industry across the board.
CICB has said only 4% of its member companies are active in international markets at the moment. It aims to increase this to 10%. It also wants to increase overall exports by 10% between this year and 2011, bringing the export value of the country's leather to $2.2 billion, a figure it achieved in 2007.
On announcing the new agreement, CICB president, Wolfgang Goerlich, commented: "Between 2000 when we started working with Apex and 2010, we managed to increase the number of hides we were exporting from 14.6 million to 24 million a year, growth of 164%. And what is more important is that exports of finished leather increased in volume by 279% over the same period, while the number of countries importing Brazilian leather increased from 68 to 90."
He said the Brazilian leather industry employs 45,000 people and contributes around $3.5 billion to the Brazilian economy.
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