Experts from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) convened in Nairobi, Kenya, on Tuesday to explore strategies for advancing the region’s leather industry.
The two-day workshop, focused on validating the regional leather value chain strategy, attracted over 100 participants, including officials from the United Nations, senior government representatives, and industry stakeholders from the 21-member economic bloc, reports Xinhua.
The goal was to drive transformation in the sector by enhancing the value of leather and leather products.
In his opening address, Juma Mukhwana, the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Investments, Trade, and Industry, emphasized Kenya’s strong commitment to developing the leather value chain to maximize benefits for the COMESA region.
His speech, delivered by Nobby Macharia, Director of Agro-Industries, highlighted the leather sector as a key pillar of the COMESA industrialization strategy.
Kenya exported leather products worth an estimated 2.2 billion shillings (approximately 17.06 million U.S. dollars) in 2023, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.
Nicholas Mudungwe, Executive Director of COMESA’s Africa Leather and Leather Products Institute, stated that the trading bloc produces around 3 billion dollars worth of leather products annually while importing an additional 2 billion dollars from other parts of the world.
He pointed out that increased investment in value addition to raw leather could potentially generate over 30 billion dollars annually for the region.
Bereket Alemayehu, a trade policy expert at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, noted that COMESA countries like Kenya and Ethiopia, with their large cattle populations, have the potential to become regional hubs for leather product exports.
He emphasized that building the capacity of value chain players would improve the quality and productivity of the leather sector, leading to increased earnings for the industry.
