Ethiopia Considers Importing Raw Skins, Hides

Leather Industry Development Institute (LIDI) of Ethiopia calls upon all tanneries in the country to consider importing raw skins and hides of livestock from abroad to cope up with the current shortage, which has led them to produce under their capacity.

picture from the workshop- Photo by newbusinessethiopia.com

In his paper the director of the institute, Wondu Legesse, present at a workshop organized at the Hilton Hotel on Thursday (January 27, 2011), the current shortage of skins and hides will not allow Ethiopia to meet its target of generating 500 million US dollars every year from leather and leather products after five years.

He argued that even though the country is top in Africa in livestock population and 10th in the world, the tanneries in the country, which have a total processing capacity of 50 million skins and hides, are only getting 14 million at the moment.Read More