Salt shortage hampers Ethiopian leather industry - leatherbiz: Leading Leatherbiz

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Salt shortage hampers Ethiopian leather industry

16/11/2012
When the Ethiopian government ruled in July that iodized salt could no longer be traded except for industrial purposes, the country’s tanners warned that this could have serious implications for the leather industry.

Now the Ethiopian Leather Industries Association has been forced to request salt from Pakistan, India and Yemen as the supplies run desperately short, according to local press, despite more-than-adequate national production to meet the 3,000 ton-per-month demand.

Truckloads of salt are reported to have been held up at ports while paperwork was completed, forcing leather producers to buy it on the black market at four times the cost.

“We cannot afford to suspend production,” said Dagnachew Demelash, finance manager of Ethiopia Leather & Tannery Share Company, which processes goat and sheep skin and needs 200 tons of salt to preserve the material on a monthly basis.

The leather association is seeking a solution from the Ministry of Trade, and The Ethiopian Food, Medicine & Health Care Administration and Control Authority.

The chairman of the salt producers association told weekly publication Addis Fortune that its board is discussing the matter and will start providing the salt in the coming few weeks.


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