Sustainability is key for Bolivia’s crocodile leather exports
20/03/2015
IBCE, the Bolivian Institute for Overseas Commerce, said in a recent statement that the country’s total export earnings from crocodile leather reached $5.4 million in 2014, compared to $1.3 million in 2010.
Italy was the most important destination for Bolivian crocodile leather in 2014 with more than a 50% share, followed by Spain with 17% and Mexico with almost 9%.
Head of statistics at IBCE, Jimena León, said crocodile leather is a high-value and high-margin export for Bolivia. She said the European Union was the best market in which to sell the leather, but that buyers there demand the highest standards of quality and of sustainability, which she said was a challenge Bolivian tanners are working hard to meet.
Commenting on the issue of the sustainability of crocodile leather, Andrés Rodríguez, a biologist working full-time with a Santa Cruz-based crocodile leather producer, Crocoland, told local media that the reptiles are in plentiful supply in certain parts of Bolivia and that an important part of his company’s sustainability story is the balance he believes it has struck between preserving the animals and helping local communities.
Mr Rodríguez explained that of all the eggs Bolivian crocodiles lay, only 10% hatch, with the rest succumbing to flooding or predators in the wild. What Crocoland has done, he explained, is to incentivise local people in the areas of the country where the reptiles breed, teaching them to look after the eggs and allowing them to make a living by supplying the tannery with newly hatched crocodiles for it to rear on its crocodile farm. Crocoland puts 10% of the crocodiles it rears back into their natural habitat.
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