Last year Limeblast reported on the zero success of the Raw Hides & Skins Grading & Pricing Systems CFC sponsored multi million dollar project with Esalia as Project Executing Agency. Consultants and traders have backed Limeblast by confirming that the project in question didn’t make any, not even the slightest, difference to the trading, grading and price structure in the countries that were involved and favoured by the project.
Let me inform you that during the 9th session of the FAO Subgroup on Hides and Skins, which was held February 1-3, 2006, the following project has been proposed (sit tight and hold yourself): Regional Raw Hides & Skins Grading and Pricing Scheme in Burundi, Malawi, Rwanda, Sudan and Uganda. This project is being proposed by Comesa. In spite of a paramount failure of the same project in other countries, the same project is being proposed for another group of countries.
The original LLPI/Comesa project as proposed at the 8th Session was criticised by the CFC Consultative Committee in 2004, BUT the Comesa project, contrarily to the SFF project, got a second chance and was revised. Even the revised project did not get the approval of the 2005 committee meeting. In short CFC recognized the complete failure of the Raw Hides & Skins Grading & Pricing Systems project.
Sam Setter
