ADDIS ABABA- The Ethiopian Leather Development Institute (ELDI) said it is unable to meet its export targets for the first half of the current fiscal year. Accordingly, the country has only managed to achieve less than 50 percent of its export targets for leather and leather products.
Berhanu Serjabo, Institute Communication Affairs Directorate Director told The Ethiopian Herald that while the Institute planned to generate some 42.06 million USD during this time, it has only managed to earn the country 13.5 million USD from the export of finished leather and leather products export.
He also added that the major factor that hindered the Institute to meet its targets is the fact that the establishment of certain local leather products industries has not been finalized on time. And the plan was prepared with the assumption that the projects would be finalized and start production and also foreign investors would also join the sector.
According to him, limited financial capability, poor coordination to expand investment opportunities in the sector, ineffective integration or coordination between government and other stakeholders are also the major reasons for the delay of the projects. Then again, weak management performance and technological limitations have also constrained the leather products’ value addition efforts, Birhanu noted.
Instability in some parts of the country, shortage of foreign currency, power outage, limited skilled manpower, technological limitations, scarcity, and low-quality input supply are among the challenges that the Institute has been facing for the last few years.
The Director noted ELDI is jointly working with the government, stakeholders and six Universities to solve the challenges related to security, supply shortages and technological and skilled manpower. Despite this fact, the below average performance in the sector has enabled the economy to create some 6,856 jobs for citizens of which 4,480 have been females.
The Ethiopian Herald, January 17/2019
BY MULATU BELACHEW
