Production of hide and skin in Ethiopia; marketing opportunities and constraints: A review paper

Ethiopia is believed to have the largest livestock population in Africa. Livestock subsector makes the major contribution to the overall economy. The livestock sector accounts for 19% of the GDP and generates 16-19% of the foreign exchange earnings of the country. It constitutes around 35% of the agricultural GDP, or 45% if indirect contributions are taken into account. With the rapidly growing population, increasing urbanization, and rising incomes, the domestic demand for meat, milk, and eggs is expected to increase significantly in the foreseeable future. The livestock production system in Ethiopia is traditional and contributes to both subsistence and cash generation. Hide is the raw skin of mature animals of larger kinds, example cattle, horse, and also other large animals. Skin is the skin of fully grown animals of smaller kinds. Hide and skin in the subsector is constrained by various structural, production, information exchange, and quality problems, as well as financial constraints. The opportunities of hides and skins sector in Ethiopia are raw material availability due to the large livestock base in pastoral areas, ready market, there is a growing national and international market for hides. To improve the hide and skin sector situation in Ethiopia, training needs to be provided for producers and collectors, collection and marketing of hide and skin should be done immediately after slaughtering, and household, government, and national and international organizations need to work together.