Academicians urge for establishment of leather tannery
ACADEMICIANS from Ethiopia Technical Vocational Institute (TVET) have stressed the need for Tanzania to have a national leather processing tannery so as to make the livestock sector more productive.
TVET academicians are currently at theDar es Salaam Institute of Technology (DIT) Mwanza Campus, for skill exchange programmes on manufacturing of various leather products.
Assistant Lecturer, MrSelamu Haile, told the `Daily News’ yesterday that the national tannery serves not only as a reliable market for pastoralists, but also assures availability of quality raw materials for industries.
“We have the tannery in our country. It has lots of advantages, including preventing skin loss as well as encouraging quantity leather products manufacturing,” said Mr Haile, who is at DIT specifically for students’ training on foot wear manufacturing.
He further advised that relevant authorities in Tanzania should intensify public education on skin preservation knowledge soon after animals’ slaughtering to get good quality of hides and skins for the tannery.
Members of the public have to be told that after a hide or skin is peeled from the animal, it should be hanged somewhere, not be grounded on landto maintain the quality.
He added, once it takes over two hours before the skin has reached the tannery, then one should apply salt on it to maintain its freshness.
“A skin should also have no direct contact with sun rays, as they quickly affect its quality,” he said.
His colleague, TVET Assistant Lecturer, MsLozaGuadie, who is at the Campus for students’ training on handbagsmanufacturing, advised that in order to have reliable markets, Tanzania should have researchers to investigate the kind of leather products in high demand, in and outside the country.
That will lead to high leather goods production as well as creation of employment to majority youth, among other advantages, she urged.
“But Tanzania is lucky as there are varieties of skin raw materials compared to Ethiopia. You have crocodile and fish skins, but we do not, due to the absence of water bodies in our country,” she said.
DIT Technician, Mr Leonard Mayunga, supported the motion that researchers have the role to play, given the fact that leather goods’ fashions keep on changing in markets.
It is so especially for female leather products, mostly foot wear, he said, stressing that researching will also attract investors in the livestock sector.
Commenting on the institutions’ programme exchange, MrMayunga said that both sides have much to learn from each other in relation to leather processing technology.
“For instance, during their stay here, our colleagues will visit some fisheries’ industries, to have the actual look of fresh fish and skin peeling process,” he said.
