Sichuan province is rich resources for its pig skins and can supply 60 million pieces of pig skin each year. half of them ship to outside of province. Sichuan has several dozens of tanneries, 13 of them belong to large scale.
15 to 20 million pieces of swine leather for garment, more than 10 million pieces for sofa and shoe lining are made in Sichuan province. Almost all these garment leather are exported to EU and America, which earned over $60 million dollars.
As increased in pork prices that led shortages of raw skin supplying, price for a pieces of pig skin also rose to 100 yuan from 60 yuan in the early of this year. To minimize the losses tanneries in Sichuan have to reduce their production by 20% to 30%, this is because price of finished leather remains the same. Contracts with foreign buyers were signed before six months, leather price is fixed, but pig skin price is going up rapidly.
Further more labor and production costs rising and cancelation of export rebate, and environmental pressure that made huge challenges for tanning industry in Sichuan province. The industrial experts said small scaled tanneries will be hard to survive from these combined attacks.
