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The Ethiopia Industrial Promotion Project (Export Promotion) (Phase 2) aims to increase the export revenue of leather materials and leather products, and as one of the activities to achieve this goal, the project is providing technical support to leather manufacturing factories (tanneries) in Ethiopia.

In August 2021, with the cooperation of Ito Sangyo Co., Ltd., a manufacturers of sheepskin and other soft leather in Soka City, Saitama Prefecture, the project filmed a teaching video of finishing techniques for upgrading low grade leathers by making surface defects on sheepskin less noticeable. After editing the video, a technical seminar was held on November 11th 2021, connecting Ethiopia and Japan online. In addition to the teaching video, the project shipped leather samples to Ethiopia that had been finished in Japan using raw sheepskin from Ethiopia so that the participants could actually touch and feel how the leather changed with each step of the process and what the appearance and texture were like after finishing. The project also provided them with the chemicals needed for finishing and a recipe showing the chemical mix and manufacturing process so that they could try to learn the techniques. Seven people from LIDI^[1] and tanneries in Ethiopia participated in the seminar. They asked many technical questions to Mr. Tatsuo Ito, the representative of Ito Sangyo Co., Ltd., and seemed very eager to learn the finishing techniques that he taught them. Marketing-related questions, what kind of leathers Japanese customers are looking for, also raised since the appearance and texture of the leather produced by Ethiopian tanneries are different from those produced by Mr. Ito.

Due to the prevalence of COVID-19, it was difficult for Japanese experts to visit Ethiopia for technical support, so we decided to provide online technical seminar using video. However, we were able to transfer the techniques to a larger number of workers of tannery and LIDI staff by using videos and sample leathers that can be accessed anytime and anywhere, and were able to achieve the technical support with the advantages of remote access.

Participants observe sample leathers finished in Japan

Group photo of the participants

Sheep leather finished in Japan.