Foreign Investment Brings More Advanced Technology And Knowledge.

Yigzaw Assefa, chairman of the leather industry association, is also CEO of the Bahirdar tannery.

He believes that the leather industry of Ethiopia has a bright future.

As one of the government's priority support sectors, investors in the leather industry enjoy tax exemption from capital goods and construction materials and 5 years of income tax exemption.

In addition, the leather industry operated by Ethiopia also enjoys the advantages of free access to the European and American markets as well as cheap labor and power supply.

With the increase of foreign investment, when the leather and leather industry peers feel increasingly competitive environment, Assefa said, it can bring more advanced technology and knowledge to the industry.

For many years, Ethiopia will only

Raw materials exported to Europe and

The latter is processed into fashion products.

But Assefa firmly believes that foreign companies investing in the Ethiopian plant can change this situation.

Local tanneries are also digging for shoes, bags and belts for export.

A typical example is Assefa's own tannery.

The factory was built in the 80s of last century to produce raw leather and leather for export. However, the company has begun to build new factories, processing finished leather into full belts, wallets, belts and gloves and selling them overseas.

"We are building factories and training staff.

At the same time, we began to launch a small amount of fashion gloves and industrial gloves to test the market reaction in Italy, Russia and the United States.

Assefa said.

"We need to change the inherent image of producing raw materials at present."

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Bangladesh media reported that due to the continued weakness of the euro and other major currencies against the US dollar, the export of leather has been in a predicament in the current fiscal year.

In the last fiscal year, the leather industry of Bangladesh entered the export Club of 100 million yuan (US dollars), and the total export of leather, shoes and other leather products totaled US $1 billion 124 million, of which leather exports amounted to US $505 million and footwear products exported to US $378 million.

In view of the good export performance of leather industry in the last fiscal year, the government set a target of export of US $1 billion 400 million in the current fiscal year.

However, data from Bangladesh's Export Bureau showed that the overall export of leather industry fell by 1.14% in the first 9 months of this fiscal year (March May 2014 -2015).

Leather shoes exports increased by 20%-25%, but leather and leather goods exports fell by 20.26% to $304 million.

According to industry estimates, because of the poor performance of leather raw materials exports, the export target of $1 billion 400 million is hard to achieve.

The Bangladesh Tanner Association says the country's total export of leather is about 200 million square feet a year, in sum, 500 million dollars.

Md Shaheen Ahmed, chairman of the Bangladesh Tanner Association, said: "the decline in leather exports is mainly due to the decline in the euro, yen and RMB exchange rate against the US dollar."

He said the decline in the euro has affected Bangladesh's overall exports.

Md Delowar Hossain, former Secretary General of the Bangladesh fur traders Association, is a leather exporter. He said the export price of high quality split leather is between $2.7 and $2.8 per square foot, compared with $3.1 last year.

He explained that because of the decline in global raw leather prices, many exporters began to hoard leather, with a view to changing in the coming months.

He said local demand for leather is on the rise because of the growing demand for shoes in Bangladesh.