East Africa’s leather segment tries to plat as a team. The top 40 operators of the leather chain located in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, met during the East African Community (∫) Leather Forum organized by East African Business Council (EABC) to figure out the industry’s state and try to design a strategy for the future. As highlighted by Peter Mathuki, EABC’s director, the leather chain’s development is one of the objectives and he invited the segment’s operators to join under an association to ease the exchange of raw material. Moreover, through the voice of Kenya Leather Apex Society’s secretary, Beatrice Mwasi, industrial operators have called on the member governments of EAC to activate some incentives to stimulate an increment in the value of raw material, but also that of finished goods. According to the international association’s estimated, Africa has 15% of the world’s bovine population, but only produced 8% of bovine leather and 4% of the global leather. The distance between potential and actual results for the segment is caused by a number of different factors: no defined standards, low quality tanneries and slaughterhouses, illicit commerce, insufficient supply of chemical products and fragmented policies.
In image, a screenshot taken from theeastafrican.co.ke
