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Pride Mahlangu, Business Reporter

THE Zimbabwe Leather Development Council (ZLDC) has started drafting a second edition of the national leather sector strategy that will guide the revival of the industry up to 2030.

Government has already outlined its economic transformation agenda guided by the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP), which feeds into the broader upper middle-income vision by 2030. 

The move follows the expiry of the initial blue-print, the Zimbabwe Leather Strategy, which spanned the period 2012 to 2017. In a telephone interview, ZLDC chairman Mr Clement Shoko said they were expecting the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to launch the new leather strategy by the first quarter of next year.

“We are currently working on the second release of Zimbabwe Leather Sector Strategy, which we hope the ministry will be able to launch by the first quarter of 2020,” said Mr Shoko.

He said a review of the first leather strategy has been done and it shows minimal impact hence stakeholders were waiting for the launch of the second one, which will take the sector to 2030.

“To be honest there was very little progress with the first one. Quite a number of things were done but not to the expectations of the sector as per our engagement. We really wanted something more tangible to come out of the leather strategy,” said Mr Shoko.

“As you understand the economy from 2012 to 2017 did not perform very well. As a result, whatever strategy we are trying to put in place can only be healthy provided the environment in which it is planted is also performing well. We also suffered the same under the same.”

Mr Shoko said the second leather strategy document has moved from the hands of stakeholders to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, which will take it to Cabinet level for consideration and possible approval.

“The environment itself defines how the industry is performing. There is no water and buying power has dropped. We hope that the fortunes of the county will improve and the new strategy is also premised around that recovery,” he said.

Tanners and leather manufacturers recently said their operations were being crippled by price instability as a result of high inflation, which saw the sector incurring high operational costs with subdued earnings. – @pridesinstinctz.