Manahil Omar Khartoum/28 January 2010 (SUNA) - Leather industry is one of the vital major industries to support the states economies. It had been developed over the different centuries to adjust with the ever changing needs of man .
Many modern methods was invented to the best utilization of this wealth and to achieve maximum revenues for supporting the local production and exports .Sudan owns a huge animal wealth that is estimated at more than 140 million head of cattle, sheep, goats and camels in addition to great wildlife wealth .Leather trade and industry represent an important economic resource for the country as its exports topped the list of the industrial exports and ranked second in the list of animal exports contributing usually not more than 35 million dollar a year .A study on the sector of leather industry conducted by a group of specialists and experts explained that animals are slaughtered in (190) slaughter houses in the different regions of the country while about 80% of the total slaughtering is taken place outside the slaughter houses during the religious and social occasions. The hides are gathered by some authorized parties and go after that to the traders stores, exporters and tanneries .The study indicated that Sudanese leathers are of good quality and suitable for using in many products but it suffer some defects resulted from the primitive raising methods, diseases, thorns, marking, slaughtering mistakes, lack of proper slaughter houses and surveillance and weakness of training, law enforcement and extension besides unawareness with the economic importance of hides .There are about 25 modern tanneries in Sudan currently distributed at the different parts of the country,3 big shoes factories, 13 small factories, 400 shoes making workshops and 3,000 handicraft workshops .The potential capacities of shoes making modern sector are estimated at 13 million pair of shoes while the actual output is about 5 million pair of shoes due to the problems encountered by this sector .Leather industry needs high skills to yield best production. Therefore, it requires continuous training and utilization of the available training centers particularly in the field of maintenance .In order to solve the problems that hinder this sector from fully contributing to the country's economy the leather chamber at the Industrial Chambers Union proposes allocation of $70million. Also the National Centre for Leather Improving provides a program of one million and 500.000 Sudanese pounds. In the field of training, the National Centre of Leather Research and Technology in cooperation with the Ministry of Industry trained 700 persons in the different fields of this industry. The Faculty of Leather Engineering at the University of Sudan, in cooperation with the Ministry of Industry, established a unit for leather technology that graduated 170 engineers and technicians .The study suggested exemption of more than 14 sorts of taxes imposed on the leather sector. It also put a comprehensive vision for the future of leather sector .
الخرطوم 25/12 سونا
