Leather Fair Coming at a cost of 2.5m Birr

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – The Ethiopian Leather Industries Association (ELIA) is hosting the sixth All African Leather Fair, spending 2.5 million Br for the event taking place at the Millennium Hall from February 20 to 22, 2013.

The Association is paying 1.2 million Br to rent the hall for three days, Solomon Getu, President of ELIA and Managing Director of Crystal Tannery Plc told Fortune after a press conference held at the Hilton Hotel on February 14, 2013.

The trade fair will bring together tanneries, leather goods manufacturers, equipment and technology suppliers, and trade promotion organisations from all over the world, according to Solomon. The Association has confirmed the participation of close to 200 companies and leather associations, 48 of them from outside of the country. Assomac, an Italian national association representing manufacturers of machinery for footwear leather goods and tannery, will be one of them, Solomon said.

International companies will pay 120 dollars for one square metres of space a day, whilst local companies will get a 51pc discount, according to Solomon.

“The leather fair will give Ethiopian companies the opportunity to get optional technology input from different international companies in order to increase the export revenue generated from the sector,” said Biruk Debebe, general manager of Ethio-Leather Industry Plc (ELICO).

Ethiopia’s revenue from the export of leather products in 2011/12 was 112.1 million dollars, up by only 7.8pc from the previous year, although the growth transformation program (GTP) target is to increase the revenue to 496.7 million dollars by the end of 2014/15.

ELIA has made a deal with the Asia Pacific Leather Fair (APLF), a company based in Hong Kong, to partner in future trade fairs starting from next year because of the increasing number of participants, says Solomon.

Source: Addis Fortune.com