Programme in place to increase availability of Mexican hides
27/11/2014
Speaking at the recent World Footwear Congress in León during a panel discussion on raw materials, Mr Collazo said demand for Mexican leather is high because, as well as material for footwear, Mexican tanneries are supplying high volumes of automotive leather. He said Mexico was now the largest producer of automotive leather in the world.
The Lefarc chief executive has said in previous comments that there are around 650 tanneries in Mexico at the moment, but that 80% of them are small businesses and only 20 are involved in producing automotive leather. Across the board, Mexican tanneries are processing around 50,000 hides per day, with 40,000 of them being processed by operators in Lefarc’s home state, Guanajuato.
Mr Collazo has said that, at most, 35% of Guanajuato’s total leather output is going into automotive applications at the moment. Something that will help tanneries in Mexico respond to demand is a government programme to increase the size of the national cattle herd from its current level of 26.9 million head to 30 million by 2018, he added. This could also reduce the number of hides Mexican tanners have to import from the US and other sources.
Lefarc won the Highly Commended prize for the Americas in the 2013 Tannery of the Year Awards.
Image shows Luis Ernesto Collazo speaking at the World Footwear Congress in León in November 2014.
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