Low nutritional diets, parasites, poor fraying met...

Low nutritional diets, parasites, poor fraying methods in cattle cost Zim leather sector, says NCC

Audrey Galawu

Despite owning a fifth of the global livestock population, African countries account for about 4% and 3.3% of world leather production and value addition, respectively.

Value addition in the leather sector has been minimal, and most of Africa’s exports have been in the form of unprocessed raw hides and skins.

According to the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, leather raw materials have increasingly become available in the developing world, while in the developed countries, a declining per capita consumption of red meat has reduced the supply of hides and skins.

This development presents developing countries, including Zimbabwe, with opportunities for penetrating new export markets.

However, due to the poor quality of raw hides and skins, the competition has remained stiff for developing countries like Zimbabwe.

According to the National Competitiveness Commission, the quality of the hides and skins has a strong bearing on the competitiveness of the entire value chain, with raw hides and skins, on average, constituting 50% - 60% of the total cost of leather production.

About 90% of the local livestock owners are from communal farmers, where the animals are reared on low nutritional diets, the prevalence of parasites (mites, lice and ticks), traditional livestock branding and poor fraying methods (manual skinning techniques), the hides and skins thereof, tend to be smaller and of inferior quality.

“This contrasts with South Africa, the country’s major competitor, where 75% of the cattle are from feedlots, while the remainder is from small-scale or informal players.

“A good quality hide to some extent depends on the live mass of the cattle and the weight of the hide is estimated to be, on average, 7% of the live mass.

“Due to the afore-mentioned factors, in Zimbabwe, the average weight of the hides obtained from the abattoirs are averaging 19 to 20kg per hide, against international best average of between 23 to 24kgs,” NCC said.

This indicates that the local hides are inferior in terms of size and points to reduced competitiveness in the global markets.

According to Trademap, the leading exporter, in 2021, in terms of value of leather and its products in Sadc and Comesa countries is South Africa, with Zimbabwe ranked number three.