Leather products exports decline

Roberta Katunga, Senior Business Reporter
EXPORTS of Zimbabwe leather products have continued to decline over the past few years despite the Government identifying the sector as a priority area that has the potential to contribute to the growth of the economy.

According to ZimTrade, the country’s exports of products that include footwear, upholstery leather and handbags among other products have remained low in the past seven years compared to the previous period of 2002- 2008.

Statistics gleaned from Trade Map, an international database of trade figures which is fed by individual trade promotions bodies like ZimTrade for Zimbabwe, showed that local hat exports of footwear, leather articles and upholstery leather had declined from US$60,5 million in 2002 to US$3,3 million in 2014.

In an interview Bulawayo Leather Cluster secretary Mr Fungai Zvinondiramba said there were many aspects that had led to the decline of exports which include lack of local support to the leather industry in terms of funding and procurement of new machinery especially in the tanneries.

“Some supporting companies closed down and this affected the sector. In addition to that, we are facing unfair competition from cheap imports and there is the issue of the general economic decline. All these aspects coupled with lack of working capital have affected the leather industry,” said Mr Zvinondiramba.

He said it was important for the sector to capacitate itself and come up with a good product at a good price as the export market is particular about quality and cost.

Mr Zvinondiramba revealed that most of the leather manufacturers in the city were not exporting directly.

“We sell our products to people locally who then export them so it is quite difficult to say which countries our products are going to at the moment. In order to capacitate ourselves as a sector, we would like to partner with other people with equipment and working capital,” he said.

Mr Zvinondiramba said Bulawayo has more than 100 people operating backyard factories manufacturing leather products and that the cluster was working towards making these small and medium enterprises more visible.

Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce Bulawayo chapter branch manager Mr Mduduzi Ncube urged companies to participate in trade shows and regional workshops to increase their presence in the export markets to increase exposure to new markets.

He said such business fora bring together importers, exporters as well as other stakeholders that are valuable networks to the Zimbabwean exporter.

“Zimbabwean companies need to utilise the Comesa and Sadc Free Trade Areas to fully exploit the markets of EU and Asia,” said Mr Ncube.

Speaking on the general state of the economy, Mr Ncube said there was a need for the Government to invest in technology as most equipment in the textile sector has become redundant and for companies within the textile sector to tap into new markets where they can gain export competitiveness in terms of new markets of their products unlike concentrating in markets which China has a very competitive stance.

He said adequate funding was also needed.

“There is a need for the Government to reduce import levies on chemicals to treat the leather since these costs would be factored on the cost of production. A lot of competition from Chinese manufacturers is faced by the leather companies in Zimbabwe. China is a major exporter of leather products to the markets targeted by Zimbabweans and these markets include South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, and countries in the EU as well as Asia,” he said.

Other factors that are affecting the leather industry include shortage of skilled workforce, high operational costs, high import duty and dilapidated transport infrastructure system that is making it take longer for finished products and raw materials to be delivered.