Business Daily (Nairobi)
Dominique Patton
1 June 2008
In a hotel conference-room-turned classroom on the outskirts of the Chinese capital, more than 50 leather experts from around the world are poring over thick textbooks full of chemical statements.
At the expense of the Chinese government, the students from 36 countries, including Kenya, are learning how to turn cattle hides into finished leather using the latest technology.
The idea is to share the vast know-how gained by China in the last 20 years of its rise to leather producing heavyweight, says course organiser, Yu Shuxian, a senior engineer at the China Leather and Footwear Industry Research Institute.
"We want to help developing countries grow their industry," she told Business Daily. The countries participating include Tanzania, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and more from South America and Asia.
China's Ministry of Commerce is funding students' flights, accommodation, month-long training course and visits to local tanneries as part of its assistance to developing countries.
Ding Zhiwen, another researcher at the institute, says the leather industry in most developing countries is small and cannot fund the kind of research work carried out in China. "We have several universities that do research on leather but few of these countries have that capacity."
Kenya's leather industry badly needs an injection of new technology. The sub-sector has hardly changed over the years and seen little investment. Yet it has the potential to become an important source of exports, particularly if it can move up a gear from semi-processed hides to finished leather, worth more than five times more than the midway product.
Nancy Gitau, a leather development officer at Kenya's Ministry of Livestock and Development, is impressed by the Chinese technology taught in the month-long course in Beijing.
"They're really advanced here. They have developed their own machines and they're cheaper than American ones."
Among the new technologies being taught is a tanning method that uses less of the potentially harmful chromium chemicals common in standard processing. China is also using more vegetable dyes to replace chemical products.
"We're looking into new chemicals to improve the quality of leather and to reduce environmental pollution. We're also introducing new equipment to increase productivity," says Ms Yu.
Tanneries have a large impact on the environment, being heavy users of water and chemicals.
China has recently raised its standards on waste water treatment and also increased enforcement of regulations on pollutants. Some of its smaller tanneries have been forced to close because they do not meet standards.
Others need to adopt new technology. In Nairobi, Elkanah Malala, senior assistant leather development officer in the department of veterinary services, says China is the biggest importer of Kenyan leather, buying some Sh2 billion of wet blue, or the hides that have been part processed but not yet turned into finished leather. (The term refers to the light blue colour caused by adding chrome salts during the tanning process.)
That's about half of the total revenue generated by the industry. Almost all exports are wet blue, however, and he says Kenya needs a partner to help it boost its capacity to produce high quality finished leather.
"The market requires goods to be finished in a certain way and we need to learn how to do that."
Kenya's northern neighbour, Ethiopia, is already getting greater value out of its leather industry thanks to strong contacts with long established leather experts in Italy. It now exports a greater proportion of finished leather.
Mr Malala is looking into establishing partnerships with a Chinese or Indian company to achieve the same feat. There is some hope for government support. The leather industry has been identified as an important sector under the government's economic recovery strategy, as well as the Strategic Recovery for Agriculture (SRA) and the Vision 2030 plan.
Important commodity
"There wasn't much focus on it before but now they have realised it's an important commodity to develop."
During a break in the leather class, Ms Gitau says she plans to report home on the need to bring Chinese expertise to Kenya to improve leather processing techniques. Kenya may need to shift into higher value processing before Chinese firms seize on the opportunity.
China's leather industry is currently going through tough times. Beijing wants to limit leather processing because of its large impact on the environment and has reduced tax rebates on leather exports.
It wants to encourage only higher value processing, or the production of leather goods like shoes and bags, and not the processing and re-export of leather for manufacturing elsewhere.
This may encourage Chinese tanneries to set up in countries like Kenya to access raw hides and carry out the processing under more favourable conditions.
One Chinese tannery has already visited Kenya, interested in starting up a business in the country.
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