jayjay0007-ga,
Okay, after our series of Clarifications, I now know that you are in
Africa and would like a discussion on how to export cattle, sheep and
goat hides and skins for high foreign exchange.
There is little doubt that you can get more money for your hide and
skin products in foreign markets than you can locally, where the
source of the product is more readily available to other Africans, and
less of a novelty. Most people around the world simply do not have
access to the exact variety of animals you have, so in order to obtain
hides and skins of these animals, they must pay a premium to foreign
exporters such as yourself. This is clearly the fundamental reason
skins and hides can earn high foreign exchange, but let us examine the
issue in significantly more detail below. Naturally, keep in mind that
there are many, many factors involved, such as whether you are dealing
in raw hideas and sins, or processed, i.e. "tanned". Also, the volume
you deal in is a large factor as well.
Do you have a website for your export business? This is as good a
place as any to start. Exporting any product is just a matter of
finding buyers who are willing to pay a suitable price. The web
reaches almost every country on the planet. Now, let us continue our
discussion.
Examining other hide/skin export businesses should prove beneficial to
you, and there are many with Internet presences. The following
Australian company, Aztech Investments, has found it profitable to
export sheep and lamb, goat and cattle skins/hides, among other
products, since 1992:
[ http://www.aztechinv.com.au/index.html ]
Here is a link specifically to their Sheep skin page, which details
the precise quality of the sheep skins they sell (most skins are “drum
salted):
[ http://www.aztechinv.com.au/sheepskins.html ]
Here is a link to their goat skins page:
[ http://www.aztechinv.com.au/goatskins.html ]
And their cattle skins page:
[ http://www.aztechinv.com.au/cattlehides.html ]
Aztech Investments also deals in “finished products”:
“Aztech Investments Pty. Ltd. has invested 50% ownership of a tannery
as a joint venture in P.R. China. Through this tannery we are able to
produce top quality finished sheep and Lamb skin products, used both
in production of fashion goods and made to order products.
Goods ordered through our joint venture are all produced from skins
of Australian origin.”
Here is the name and telephone number of Aztech Investments’ Export
Director: EXPORT DIRECTOR
Direct Telephone: +61 8 9437 8999
There is no doubt that you could learn a lot by talking with him/her.
Ask about what African connections they have. Offer to establish a
connection. Find out what their prices are, and compare them with your
own.
Here is the e-mail address for general contact with the Head Office:
AZTECH@AZTECHINV.COM.AU
Aztech also has overseas liaison offices in the following countries:
China, Italy, France and Turkey (Contact information is here: [
http://www.aztechinv.com.au/contactus.html ]
Like most successful export businesses, Aztech has achieved success by
maintaining relationships with several importers in different areas of
the world. Thus, when economic downturns occur in one particular
region which drives business down there, they can turn to the other
regions. Do not depend on any one supply chain alone, if at all
possible.
The more importers you establish relationships with, the better off
you will be. World currency fluctuations are also a factor.
Let’s look at another world region: China. There are 1 billion people
living in China. Here are some of the major factors to consider
regarding the sheep and lamb skin hides in China, excerpted from “The
2002 Import and Export Market For Raw Sheep and Lamb Skin Hides In
China"
“On the demand side, exporters and strategic planners focusing on raw
sheep and lamb skin hides in China face a number of questions. Which
countries are supplying raw sheep and lamb skin hides to China? How
important is China compared to others in terms of the entire global
and regional market? How much do the imports of raw sheep and lamb
skin hides vary from one country of origin to another in China? On the
supply side, China also exports raw sheep and lamb skin hides. Which
countries receive the most exports from China? How are these exports
concentrated across buyers? What is the value of these exports and
which countries are the largest buyers?”
Who exactly are these factors intended for? From the same report:
“This report was created for strategic planners, international
marketing executives and import/export managers who are concerned with
the market for raw sheep and lamb skin hides in China. With the
globalization of this market, managers can no longer be content with a
local view. Nor can managers be content with out-of-date statistics,
which appear several years after the fact. Icon Group has developed a
proprietary methodology, based on macroeconomic and trade models, to
estimate the market for raw sheep and lamb skin hides for those
countries serving China via exports, or supplying from China via
imports. It does so for the current year based on a variety of key
historical indicators and econometric models.” It sounds to me as
though you would be classified as an export manager. Also pay
particular attention to the sentence: “With the globalization of this
market, managers can no longer be content with a local view.” This
shows that foreign exchange is essential in the successful hide and
skin trade.
The report in its entirety must be purchased. The cost is US$325.
The following is a link to the page where it may be purchased:
[ http://shop.store.yahoo.com/chinaonline/20imandexmar36.html ]
The following article deals exclusively with African livestock hides
and skins exporting, but is only available by subscription:
[ http://allafrica.com/stories/200307160874.html ]
Now let’s look at yet another major world area: India. From the
overview of the Indian leather industry on the techno-preneur site
[http://www.techno-preneur.net/timeis/technology/sctechFeb-March/entre2.html
]:
“Hides (from cattle and buffaloes)and skins (from goats and sheep)
originate from the sources: through slaughter and mortality. The
availability of hides and skins is determined by the demand for meat
and the rate of mortality. In other worlds, the supply is inelastic to
the demand from leather industry. As seen in Table-3 are about 60% of
hides and 90% of the skins generated through slaughter. It is well
known that in India, cattle and buffaloes are reared for milk and
draft and they end up in slaughter when they become unproductive. On
the other hand, goats and sheep are basically reared for meat...
Regarding sources of hides and skins, slightly more come from
slaughtered animals than from fallen animals. "
Another exceprt from the same webpage:
“The recovery of fallen hides in India is confronted with number of
socio-economic issues. This is resulting in significant non-recovery
of hides (Table-4). In other worlds, they are being wasted due to the
non-availability of traditional flayers as well as local practices of
burying in certain parts of the country. However, in the case of
skins, the wastage is confined to lamb/kids due to uneconomical
reasons. The wastage of hides and skins from the source of slaughter
is almost nil. However, the man-made defects such as flay cuts,
improper storage and handling continue to be the major cause of
concern for the significant portion of low quality raw materials.”
Now let’s look at Africa. Here are statistics on how much of the total
world production of livestock hides and skins is accounted for by
Africa (from the International Trade Forum’s website at [
http://www.tradeforum.org/news/fullstory.php/aid/221.html ]
African share of total world production
• 5 % of bovine hides and skins
• 14% of goat and kid skins
• 9% of sheep and lamb skins
Also, there is a free CD-ROM on this subject and the African leather
industry available from this site by e-mailing:
“A CD-ROM is available upon request from Emmanuel Barreto,
ITC Associate Trade Promotion Adviser, at barreto@intracen.org"
The exact tactics you take will be affected by the scale of your
operation. Are you planning on selling only a few hides every now and
then as they become available to you, or set up a major 24/7 operation
dealing worldwide? The answers to this question will dictate precisely
how you must go about doing business.
I would start by emailing/calling other importers/exporters of
livestock skins from around the world and ask about their pricing and
supply chain management.
The larger your operation becomes, the more important supply chain
management will become. I don’t know what your experience/knowledge is
in these areas, but let me provide a link below where you can look
into it further should you find it necessary. The following link is to
the homepage of the Supply Chain Management Research Center, and deals
with all related aspects of supply chain management. From here you can
peruse related links, Search the site and e-mail others for more
information.
[ http://www.cio.com/research/scm/ ]
Another viable outlet for selling your hides and skins is that of
eBay:
[ http://www.ebay.com ]
There are groups of eBay “professional sellers” who make a living
selling things on eBay. Here are the current listings when searching
eBay for “hides and skins”:
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?cgiurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.aol.ebay.com%2Fws%2F&krd=1&from=R8&MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&ht=2&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&query=hides+and+skins
0 items found. This means that you may be able to establish a niche in
this area! Here is a link to the eBay registration form which you
must complete before buying or selling anything on eBay:
http://pages.ebay.com/education/tutorial/course1/registration_1.html
Please do not hesitate to ask for further Clarification if anything I
have presented here is not clear, or if you need more information on a
very specific area which you direct me to, as your question was quite
general.
Google Search Strategy:
Keywords: “hides and skin trade”
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=hides+and+skin+trade
“hides and skin trade foreign exchange”
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=hides+and+skin+trade+foreign+exchange
“hides and skin values”
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=hides+and+skin+values&btnG=Google+Search
“hides and skins export companies”
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=hides+and+skins+export+companies
“livestock hides skins African export”
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=livestock+hides+skins+african+export
“African skins hides trade”
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=African+skins+hides+trade
I certainly hope that this information is of assistance to you. Good
luck in your venture!
Sincerely,
omniscientbeing-ga |
