Government makes hide exports easier in Zimbabwe
11/01/2019
Previous policies placed a tax of 75 cents per kilo on hide exports and stipulated that 40% of Zimbabwean hides must remain in the country for processing by local tanners. National statistics agency, Zimstat, has reported that 60% of hides produced by the meat industry in 2017 went to waste.
Between January and August 2017, tanners exported 900 tonnes of processed hides, Zimstat said, which would signify 1,350 tonnes for the year. However, it puts raw hide production in Zimbabwe at around 5,000 tonnes per year, suggesting that the country’s domestic leather industry processed less than 30% of the available resource for export. Some of tanners’ output would, of course, have stayed in Zimbabwe.
As a result of the change, “registered merchants” have been allowed to ship hides outside the country without paying the tax.
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