New study puts value of US hides sector at $3.4 billion
21/06/2016
NAMI, an affiliate organisation of the US Hide, Skin and Leather Association (USHSLA), commissioned the study from New York-based economic research firm John Dunham and Associates. It put the value of the entire US meat and poultry industry at more than $1 trillion in total economic output. This corresponds to 5.6% of the whole US gross domestic product.
The study, which groups hides and skins with offal, found that the production, processing and distribution of those products directly employs 5,486 people in the US, who collectively earn more than $384 million in wages. The broader meat and poultry industry is responsible for 5.4 million jobs and $257 billion in wages, the report found.
“The US hides and skins industry remains one of the top raw materials suppliers to the global leather manufacturing industry,” said USHSLA president Stephen Sothmann, on the release of the study. “This study just proves what we have known for years: the companies and employees that export more than 90% of US hides and skins products are integral to the US economy.”
Exports of hides and skins products, including raw and wet blue cattle hides and pig skins had a value of more than $2.3 billion in value in 2015. The Dunham study uses data from 2014.
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