Ethiopia’s leather industry shows considerable promise to become globally competitive. The country shows strategic alignment of its natural resources and production of leather and leather goods with affordable and abundant workforce. The Ethiopian leather industry is a priority sector in view of the potential growth in employment and export. Endowed with the largest livestock population in Africa, the livestock sector offers a high, mostly untapped potential for production to meet sustainable economic growth. It is forecasted that the leather industry would reach mature stages of business friendly practices by 2025. Concurrently with the expansion of international market destinations, tanneries show the promising prospects of producing higher value-added finished leather for export.

Enterprise Partners (EP) played a role in facilitating a more robust market-driven sector through interventions aimed at by diversifying local economies, creating employment opportunities, raising income and ultimately relaying wealth and technical services to strengthen the development of key institutions across the leather value chain. Enterprise Partners facilitated market-sharing activities between industry professionals and international consultants to provide support services such as commercial production planning and cost/pricing and promotion.

Theory of Change

Markets

Raw Hides and Skins

Ethiopia has the largest livestock population in Africa. Livestock sectors play vital roles in generating income to herders creating job opportunities, ensuring food security and providing services that contribute to sustaining environment.

Enterprise Partners worked across the raw hides and skin supply and leather value chain to foster industrial growth and increase the export of leather products. Our key aim was to improve the finishing capacity of tanneries and brand Ethiopian leather products for the international market. This led to further investment in the sector, creating a robust value chain system with quality leather supply to factories, and increasing the manufacturing capacity of quality leather products.

Enterprise Partners worked to improve RHS quality and characteristics by facilitating interaction between tanners and end users like international footwear and leather goods manufacturers. EP worked to help the end users identify the gaps in the existing quality and services. To address these gaps, EP launched interventions to improve vet services, assisting rawhides collectors and traders in transportation and preservation of skins and hides, engaging tanners and service providers for technical capacity building for product finishing.

Enterprise Partners generated £60 million worth of new investments, and 12,000 manufacturing jobs, 75% of these going to women.

Tanning

Enterprise Partners worked to develop market-driven finished leather production by introducing chemical companies to collaborate with tanneries for quality finishing of leather products.

Enterprise Partners worked with Ethiopia’s tanning industry to develop quality leather production structures through close collaboration with international chemical companies and buyers. Our work improved supply chain systems for chemicals and other inputs, as well as establish better links with leather finishing experts within the industry, and increase the supply of quality raw hides and skins. We significantly focused on the promotion of green practices in tanneries, aiming specifically to reduce the use of chromium in the processing or finishing of leather.

Leather Products

Enterprise Partners engaged in a number of initiatives focusing on the leather products market to ensure improved supply chain, export and, marketing functions. We committed to ensure Ethiopia’s place in the global mass market for leather products, especially with regard to the United States which is the leading importer of leather goods. 

Featured Leather Resources