Tanzanian leather industry remains at low ebb

 

21.29 million goats and 7.8 million sheep  

 

 

3.63 million goats and 1,71 million sheep

 

 

Currently less than 0.5 million skins

 

 

There are no exports of pickled skins

 

 

Currently there are no exports of wet blue skins

 

 

There is no export of finished leather.

 

 

In Tanzania we had 10 tanneries (7 processing to wet blue stage for export and 3 making finished leather for the domestic market). However production performance has been fluctuating over the years, reaching a peak in 2014. Over 90% of tanning output was semi processed leather (wet blue) for export. 

Following the year 2015 there has been a sharp decline in demand and prices for the leather, forcing 7 tanneries to close and only 3 processing finished leather for the domestic market. 

 

 

Not really. The majority of livestock production is still carried out in a traditional practice on a household scale. Livestock production for 80% consists of traditional agro pastoralists and 14% of pastoralists. This traditional livestock production practice often causes defects in animal skin resulting in the poor quality of hides and skins.

Adequate slaughtering facilities to support leather manufacturing are not available in Tanzania. Most of these are simple buildings where killing and dressing are carried out on the floor. Informal slaughters also operate throughout the country with poor building conditions, hygiene, and safety. Inadequate slaughter facilities cause animal skin to be mixed with blood and faeces which makes skin preservation hard. In addition, slaughtering facilities in Tanzania are located far from tanneries creating additional transportation cost and potential damage that deteriorates skins quality.  

 

 

As pointed out above, export demand has been shrinking rapidly since 2015 and currently there is completely no market for skins, forcing a lot of skins to be dumped. In the last two years there has been a huge demand for raw dried cattle hides from West Africa - Nigeria in particular - where they end up being consumed as food.

 

 

Less processed.

 

 

Domestic demand is not growing due to the market being flooded with imports of synthetic (PVC) products made of synthetic leather and second hand (used) products.