In the growing Ostrich leather market, South Africa maintains its position comfortably as the world’s leading supplier of Ostrich leather and Ostrich meat products. Since the lifting of strict marketing and production laws that limited these activities to a single channel, a number of vibrant ostrich processing plants have sprung up. And whilst many of these plants are driven by the ostrich breeders/producers themselves, they utilise skills and expertise which have been developed over the years in South Africa. One such enterprise is Ostrimark S.A. which has opened it doors in Grahamstown near Port Elizabeth.

Incorporating a high tech effluent plant designed by Johan Barnard and utilising environmentally friendly processes, the tannery also boasts a world-class chemical feeding system. The man entrusted with ensuring consistently high standards of quality from the plant is Ulf Oehl, a qualified leather technologist with extensive experience in ostrich skin tanning.

Johan Schoeman, general manager says he expects growth to be positive over the next few years as markets expand.  However, he also considers that profitability levels will be highly dependent on the performance of the rand, the recent strengthening of which has made margins very tight in the industry. Currently the market share is split 40 percent USA, 40 percent Japan and Korea and 20 percent Europe.

Share this story: