Tanzania: government urged to improve hides sector
The Tanzanian government has been urged to improve the country’s hides and skin industry since it has the potential to contribute towards economic development of Tanzania.
Tanzanian livestock stakeholder, Samson Makubi, told local media that the government has done little in improve the sector. Statistics indicate that the country has a population of over 20.8 million cattle, 14.1 million goats and 3.6 million sheep.
“This provides an important renewable locally available resource, namely hides and skins, which has considerable potential to generate sizeable export earnings,” Mr Makubi said.
Statistics indicate that in the year 2006/07 a total of 1.98 million hides, 1.52 million goat skins and 1.22 million sheep skins were collected. Of these about 1.7 million hides, 1.1 million goat skins and 928,000 sheep skins worth $13 million were exported, 80% being in raw and 20% in semi processed form.
Mr Makubi said the other challenge facing the livestock sector is poor quality of the hides and skins. “This problem of quality caused by defects extends to each of the subsequent stages of processing of the leather, thus ultimately determining the price paid to the primary producer and of the semi processed or an end product,” he said.
An analysis of the leather sector undertaken by the government in collaboration with stakeholders with the assistance from UNIDO revealed that the problems in the sector can only be sufficiently addressed through a holistic approach, using interventions that target the whole value chain.
