Sudan’s leather exports dropped by $10 million in 2014
June 20, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – A paper presented at a forum organized by the Investment Promotion Commission (IPC) has shown that Sudan’s leather exports have decreased by $10 million in 2014.
According to the leather technology specialist, Al-Fatih Abu Rafad, who presented a paper on leather industry on Saturday, the revenue from exports of 25 million pieces of cattle, sheep, camel, goats and reptiles leather reached $47,656,225 in 2014.
He added that Sudan’s exports of rough cattle hides have decreased from 4,730,765 tons in 2013 to 2,396,035 tons in 2014, noting that embalmed leather exports have increased while exports of rough sheep and goatskin have stopped in 2014.
Abu Rafad further pointed out that Sudan exported 40 tons of rough camel skin in 2014 with total return of $160,000.
The paper disclosed there are 28 tanneries in Sudan spread over Khartoum, White Nile, Red Sea and Kassala states, noting the design capacity of those tanneries is 25 million pieces of light leather.
However, the paper pointed that actual production of those tanneries doesn’t exceed 6 million pieces, noting that some of the tanneries operate with only 25% of its design capacity.
Abu Rafad said the leather industry faces several challenges including lack of a specialized industrial zone, skinning defects, lack of production inputs, lack of funding and the high fees and levies.
He called for reconsidering financing policies and allocation of export revenues besides introducing the concept of clean production, demanding building abilities of the workers through training in coordination with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).
The paper also called for building a specialized industrial area for leather products.
Given its animal resources, Sudan is considered as the richest country in Africa. The total number of national flock amounted to 141,904 million heads in 2010.
Currently the leather sector contributes an average of $40 million annually to direct exports and also contributes by about $5 million in the form of shoes and other leather products as substitution to imports.
Despite the huge capacities of animal wealth in Sudan and the various advantages, the sector suffers from lack of coping with new techniques and from the existence of suitable investment conditions in addition to the lack of a clear strategy to support Sudanese exports.
(ST)