The Leather and Footwear Sectors in Tanzania
The Leather sector in Tanzania, despite having a history of over
twenty years is for a variety of reasons not achieving its tremendous
potential with only a few companies still operating. Tanzania
by the early 80’s had a total investment of over 100 million USD
in 3 leather tanneries and one shoe-manufacturing unit. The main
motivation for the government to invest in this sector (aside
from the more obvious employment benefits) was to add value to
Tanzanian exports, as well as develop products that could substitute
imports. As with most parastatal organizations in Tanzania, economic
liberalization greatly affected the survival of sector as most
of these investments were never run commercially and concentrated
more on employment generators rather than profit. Poor management,
lack of technical expertise, as well as lack of working capital
resulted in most mills achieving in some cases less than 10% capacity
utilization. This trend continued until the mid 90’s when most
mills were shut down awaiting privatisation.
Despite having one of the largest livestock populations in Africa,
the leather sector remains relatively inactive and is still very
underdeveloped with huge opportunities for foreign investment.
Profile
of Tanzanian Leather & Footwear Sectors
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