Leather factories production down on low quality hides, skin

TANZANIA: MINISTRY of Livestock and Fisheries has said low quality hides and skin has led to a 20 per cent decline of production in leather factories in the country.

Director of Production and Marketing Development (DPMD) at the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, Mr Stephen Michael said the installed capacity of leather factories is 2,381,000 pieces of cow skin but only 198,100 pieces are processed annually which is less than 10 per cent of the leather factories capacity.

He also said leather factories capacity is to process goat and sheep skin reaching 24,900,000 pieces but only 717,000 are processed annually due to lack of quality hides and skin.

“Apart from low quality of skin, availability of second-hand goods like shoes, belts and so forth has contributed to the deterioration of our local leather factories,” he said.

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He said the presence of artificial leather largely used to make shoes and belts is also the major contributing factor for the declining capacity of leather processing factories.

He said the alternative uses of the animal skins such making food for humans and animals like dogs as well as production of cosmetics and other industrial products including gelatin glue and drugs in Nigeria make the country to be leading importer of leather, creating shortage in Tanzania.