In the past decade or so the Indian leather and leather products sector has continued to grow and is now seen by many as the market to watch. It is now the second largest leather footwear maker in the world after China and has an abundance of local raw materials

A dinner was held at Leathersellers Hall in London at the beginning of October to celebrate the centenary of the UKLF. Records show that in 1908 there were 37 members of the first national leather trade association while today, sadly, there are only twenty.

As James Lang, director, states: if you walk onto a plane and find leather upholstery, the likelihood is that it came from Andrew Muirhead. This even holds true if you are the President of the United States!

Brown Cow Organics are a unique Somerset company involved in the entire leather production chain from the very beginning to the finished article.

Owen Barry, based in Street, a traditional centre of UK sheepskin and leather processing, work with leading designers and retailers to create beautiful garments, accessories and lifestyle products.

Another Somerset leather business retains a diverse and impressive client list which ranges from the Royal Household to the ‘Death Eaters' in the Harry Potter films.

Nestled in the former premises of the National School in Street, C A Cornish draw on the leather skills and craft in the area to provide designers and artists with leather bindings and trimmings of quality and durability. The primary product is a flat piece of leather for piping, decorative piping.

A clear example of a UK manufacturer which has stayed loyal to a very specialised niche product and thus continued to thrive despite recent economic trends is L H Nichols. The Yeovil-based tannery are one of only a handful of companies worldwide which tan slinkskins.

The hides, skins and leather industry is one of the key agricultural sub-sectors in Kenya and has a high potential towards commodity development that addresses pertinent issues of socio economic importance and positively impacts on rural development, creation of wealth and employment. By Dr M Mwinyihija.

The main obstacles to relocating tanneries from Hazaribagh to the Savar cluster are tanners' demands for compensation and the lack of a donor agency to finance the construction of a CETP. These two matters need to be resolved urgently and effectively.M Fakhrul Alam reports

Fact file

Republic of India

Area: 3,287,000 sq km (around the size of the EU)

Capital: New Delhi

Population: 1.1 billion

Population growth rate: 1.4% per annum (average)

System of government: Parliamentary democracy composed of 228 states, 7 union territories

Head of state: Mrs Pratibha Devisingh Patil, President of India

GDP: $910 billion

Currency: Indian rupee

India is the seventh largest country in the world with one of the fastest growing economies. The current GDP growth rate is 9%.

Tanneries

Cuba has four state-owned tanneries employing around 1,000 people which produce finished leather for the local footwear manufacturing industry as well as exporting wet-blue primarily to Italy, Spain, Türkiye, Syria and Hong Kong, which then re-exports the wet-blue to Chinese tanneries. These four tanneries are:

Operations at Bataan Tannery, the largest in Nicaragua, have been suspended for three months as well as at the Central American Tannery. According to Silvio Salinas, owner of the Central American Tannery, six major and 35 minor tanneries have been forced to suspend operations since there are hardly any raw materials to be found.

Hide values continued to rise throughout 2006 and, by December, all steer hide selections were commanding prices well over $70 per piece on an FOB basis. In the latter half of 2006, steer hide prices rose around 20% while cow hide prices went up by about 22% for the year.

This year the fair was bigger and busier than ever before. BASF, who showed for the first time, were so overwhelmed by the mass of visitors that they had to send back to their Indian headquarters for reinforcements. And, despite the expansion of the exhibition complex itself, there was still a sizeable portion of the show under canvas.

This year's LERIG meeting, which took place just before the IILF in Chennai, took Benign Environmental and Sustainable Technologies as its theme. The meeting is organised annually by the Central Leather Research Institute with a full programme of presentations.

Argentina

The last five years have seen a positive cycle in cattle ranching in Argentina. Cattle stock has increased from 50 million to 55 million and slaughter emerged from a decade long stagnation (12-13 million heads per year) to 14-15 million. This was partly due to the four million tons of corn used per year for supplementary bovine feeding.

According to Narvaez, the Colombian sector's specialities include footwear leathers, leathergoods, garment and upholstery. In terms of size and technology, as well as in finishing, the main players are Bufalo, Itagui, Americana de Curtidos, Curtipieles, Matteuchi, Curtiembres Sierra Perez, Curtiembres del Reno and Districarnazas Luna. The tanning industry is dispersed throughout Colombia with centres on the Atlantic Coast in Baranquilla and Cartagena as well as on the 'Coffee-growing Axis' - Calarca and Pereira, Antioquia, Medellín, and in the centre of the country, Bogotá. In terms of wet-blue production the major players are CI Colcueros and American Leather in Bogotá.

Increased demand for footwear based on a real rise in disposable consumer income has enabled many tanneries to lift their sales of finished leathers to the local shoe manufacturing industry. Table 1 illustrates the decline in productivity and the use of installed capacity of the tanning and footwear industries, taking 1997 as the base year.