Enhancing African Leather Exports to the EU under the MARKUP II Initiative
Nairobi, 23 May 2024: COTANCE Secretary General Gustavo Gonzalez-Quijano reported on the challenges and opportunities of the EUDR for African leather exports to the EU as part of the ITC-led MARKUPII initiative, funded by the EU.
Markup II programme plans to engage with national industry platforms and the regional EAC platform (nascent) to prioritise key challenges and technical barriers in EAC programmes/policies that are interfering with leather exports at the regional level. It also seeks to assist the platform to steer the implementation of the East African Community Leather and Leather Products Strategy and Implementation Roadmap 2030, which can be reviewed in detail here
In his speech, he recommended a public-private partnership in the African Union for implementing traceability in the leather supply chain, inviting ALLPI to consider joining the Leather Traceability Cluster to support operators in East Africa in setting up cattle hides traceability systems.