Leather export earns Ethiopia $19 mln in five-months

The Leather Development Institute (LIDI) said that Ethiopia has earned $19 million from the export of leather products over the last five months of the 2021/22 fiscal year.

Dagnachew Shiferaw, Director-General of LIDI, said in a press conference on Wednesday that plan has been set to garner $90 million in the current fiscal year.

Also, it was planned to garner $26 million from leather products exports in five months. However, the actual earnings fell short of its target.

“Lack of export items transporting containers and unavailability of swift-cargo services are the reasons for less earnings in five months,” he said.

He added: “A plan has been designed to replace the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) market opportunities”.

The United States suspended Ethiopia from the AGOA opportunity, a tariff and quota free trade privilege for Sub-Saharan African countries, last month.

“Deliberation has also been made with leather companies on the ways to decrease their production costs and compete at the US market through tariff-payments,” said Dagnachew.