Major treats of skin and hides in Ethiopian leather industry: A review

The leather industry sector is one of the fast growing economic sectors in Ethiopia. Hides and skins are the basic raw materials for the leather industry. The major sources for these raw materials are cattle, sheep and goats. The leather industry sub sector is still in its lower level of development. This sub sector is suffering from so many problems including diseases (like parasitic diseases such as mites basically demodex, psoroptes; bacterial diseases as dermatophillosis; fungal diseases like ringworms; and viral diseases like lumpy skin disease). The leather industry sub-sector also faces mechanical problems like flaying and branding, market availability and accessibility, transportation and the quality of raw materials supplied. Poor animal husbandry, bad practices in curing and collection, general handling and the potential of supply are the other factors that affect the leather sub sector. A lower attention is given to the Ethiopian livestock sector from which the raw materials come in relation to disease aspect, management of the mechanical problems, market conditions and others give a negative feedback to the leather industry sector. Due to these factors hindering the development of the leather sub-sector which are in need of greater care and management, the contribution of the sector to the national income is disproportionately small. Higher level of attention is needed to be given from government; stakeholders and professional sectors to improve the current status of skin and hides to that serve as the input for the leather industry that enables us to have a good quality output for foreign currency.