Regional Tannery of the Year winners walk tall
01/04/2016
Africa – White Nile Tannery, Sudan
Americas – Couro do Norte, Brazil
Asia excluding China – Kings International, India
China – Dazhong Leather, Zhejiang Province
Europe – Atlantic Leather, Iceland
Couro do Norte went on to win Global Tannery of the Year Award, and Kings International also enjoyed double success as the winner of the Innovation Award.
White Nile Tannery is located in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. It’s a new venture set up in 2010 and run by father-and-son team Dr Mohamad and Nour Rifai. They were invited by the government to come to Sudan and attempt to reopen a state-owned tannery from the 1970s. Part of what the White Nile team has brought to Sudan is an extensive microfinance initiative that will create jobs and wealth for local people.
For its part, Dazhong Leather has a claim to the title of the oldest tannery in China that is still in production today; it’s preparing to celebrate its ninetieth anniversary. One creative initiative it has embarked on is a project that has covered 50,000 square-metres of roof on its buildings with solar panels. The solar energy from here is already equivalent to around 80% of all the energy Dazhong Leather needs for production.
Atlantic Leather is somewhat unusual because one of its main areas of focus is on fish leather: joint-owner, Gunnsteinn Björnsson worked out, after a great deal of trial and error, how to make fish skins into “real leather”, which is to say a soft material that works as well in applications such as shoe, handbag and interior design as any other kind of leather, with the additional bonus of an unusual exotic and attractive appearance. Mr Björnsson has taken the unusual step of offering to help other tanners set up rival fish leather operations, arguing that this will help expand the popularity of fish leather and increase the market for everyone, including Atlantic Leather.
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