Colombian leather industry calls on government to do more
18/07/2014
According to Acicam, more than 60% of Colombian hides are being shipped to tanners in other countries either as raw hides or wet blue. Official statistics show that between January and April, Colombian abattoirs slaughter 1.3 million heads of cattle. Of these, 62% left Colombia in the raw state or as wet blue, leaving 38% for Colombia’s tanners to finish. Acicam said in recent comments to local media that this situation is “becoming worse”.
Acicam president, Luis Gustavo Flórez, said: “The volume of hides begin shipped overseas, particularly to China, is unusually high. Local tanners are being left without enough raw material to work with and this is having a very negative impact on the whole of the Colombian leather industry. In the course of the last three months, the price that finished goods manufacturers are having to pay for finished leather has gone up by 14%.”
The Colombian government issued a decree last year aimed at controlling exports so that Colombian companies would be able to add greater value to the country’s raw material on home soil. Mr Flórez stopped short of calling for a change in the law, but he said the government must carry out stricter controls of its own policy. “The way this is being controlled at the moment isn’t right,” he said. “The export figures are too high.”
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