Government study
06/05/2008
The Tanzanian government has initiated a study of the hides and skins sector in the country. Tanzania has Africa’s third-largest livestock population after Sudan and Ethiopia, but the leather industry is under-developed there.
In spite of having about 18.5 million cattle, 13 million goats and 3.5 million sheep, the leather sector in Tanzania has been largely inactive for around 20 years now, the government has acknowledged. The idea behind the new study is to find ways of improving this.
Apart from skins and hides, Tanzania is also doing poorly in the meat sector; its contribution to the national economy has always been minimal.
The government hopes the study will identify key trends in the hides and skins supply and demand chain. It will highlight problems that hinder the development of the sector, facilitate improvement of the quality of raw materials, improve existing tanneries, attract more investment, and look at ways of making it easier for companies in the sector to buy modern technology.
The authorities have said they view Tanzania’s cattle, goats and sheep population as an important resource with immense potential for adding value, generating jobs and increasing export earnings.
Sources in Tanzania have said some of the tanneries in the country have had to close owing to the poor quality of local hides and skins, the only raw materials available to them.
The permanent secretary at the ministry of livestock development and fisheries, Dr Charles Nyamurunda, has commented: “This problem of quality caused by defects extends to each of the subsequent stages of processing of the leather, thus ultimately determining the price paid to the primary producer and of the semi-processed or an end product.”
He attributed the problem to poor animal husbandry, poor handling of the hides and skins, poor storage and preservation methods and inadequate enforcement of existing legislation.
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