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‘Creative industry must tap into leather’

BUUMBA CHIMBULU writes

@SunZambian

ZAMBIA’S leather sector has immense potential to grow, create employment and add value to other industries, says ZamLeather, a division of Zambeef Products General Manager, Richard Franklin.

Mr Franklin said the key to unlocking it fully, however, lied in local markets such as the creative industries tapping into the possibilities of leather and seizing the opportunity to create a culture and conversation around this versatile, natural material.

He said in a write up on Zambia’s Leather Industry that it the time to tap into the leather sector was now, and that the creative industries could help to accelerate its growth.

“The creative sector in Zambia has been on an upwards trajectory in the past few years with Small and Medium Enterprises springing up across the country in fashion, crafts and interior design, driven by an entrepreneurial attitude and the desire to produce and manufacture beautiful, quality items locally,” he said.

Mr Franklin said while there was a healthy curiosity to explore and incorporate more local materials in their concepts and designs, the sector had, to a large extent, not yet fully embraced the concept of a robust and thriving leather culture.

Zambia, he explained, needed only look to regional peers like Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia and South Africa to see how much value there is in leather.

He said currently the local mining and security wings had been the biggest up-takers of finished leather products such as smelter suits, safety boots and other personal protective wear.

Mr Franklin indicated that there was still a long way to go for the tanning industry in Zambia with challenges such as poor quality of raw hides resulting from over branding of cattle and having only two tanneries in the country, but the opportunities for leather are immense.

“Over the years Zambian leather has made its way to global markets with companies like ZamLeather exporting wet blue hides as well as finished leather to South Africa, China, India, as well as several countries in Europe.

“The industry has its fair share of challenges, with poor supply chain management, cattle rustling, competition arising from imports of finished leather goods, and high import duties on material and components. This has led to all but two tanneries closing,” he said.

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