Leather implications arise from Mosstrich-KKI merger
16/08/2019
A further condition concerns particular customers of the two producers. KKI and Mosstrich’s customers are ostrich farmers who send birds for slaughter at abattoirs run by the two companies for the processing of the meat, with the skins and feathers being processed separately.
According to the tribunal’s decision, two customers, Buffelskom Boerdery and Ostriland, are to have current arrangements with Mosstrich “preserved indefinitely”. Any party that does wish to cancel the arrangement has to give 24 months’ notice.
The case of Ostriland is straightforward. This company raises ostriches and set up its own tannery in Citrusdal in the Western Cape in 1996 to “optimise the yield”. The Mosstrich abattoir carries out the slaughter of Ostriland birds and returns the skins (along with the meat and the feathers) to Ostriland for processing into leather at Citrusdal. The tribunal decision gives Ostriland the right to keep this set-up in place.
Buffelskom, on the other hand, has its own abattoir but does not have its own tannery at the moment. It has been using Mosstrich’s South Cape Ostrich Tannery for contract tanning for several years and markets its own leather. The tribunal has decided that Buffelskom must be allowed to keep this arrangement in place and must also be allowed to set up its own tannery if it decides to do so.
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