Ethiopia Leather

There are sound opportunities for Leather products from Ethiopia on the European market, however the Leather and Leather Products (LLP) sector does not seem to be able to fully grasp these opportunities. This is caused by issues in the value chain hampering further growth as well by the fact that a more practical approach (towards export) in the leather sector is needed. The ambition of the project is to support the LLP sector and its stakeholders to gain a firm position in the mid and mid high (end) segments on the European market for footwear, handbags and gloves.The added value as well as the uniqueness of this project lies in the fact that CBI’s interventions will be complementary to the interventions of the Green Tanning Initiative, PUM, UNIDO and the Ethiopian government. All initiatives are focused on alleviating mainly CSR obstacles downstream in the value chain and have no or only small-scale activities focused on the export part of the value chain. By adding CBIs expertise to these initiatives the impact of our interventions regarding sector development is expected to be much higher. The emphasis in the project will lay on interventions in the Export Enabling Environment: creating a Public Private sector dialogue and strengthening collaboration amongst the key stakeholders. The Business Export Coaching trajectory will serve two goals. Firstly, experiences and learning trajectory of the involved SMEs in becoming competent for export with sustainable produced leather products (in terms of quality, product offer, buyers’ requirements, sustainable practices, etc) will support the understanding at institutional level on what is needed. The SMEs will therefore have to be involved in the institutional trajectory so lessons learned can be shared and translated by the stakeholders to concrete steps for further sector development. Second goal is to capacitate SMEs to become export ready so that they can showcase to European buyers that more sustainable LLPs can be sourced in Ethiopia.