Shoe companies in Nicaragua ask state to fund a sole leather tannery
Footwear producers in Nicaragua have asked the government in the Central American country to provide funding for a sole leather tannery there.
President of shoe and leather industry association Cancunic, Alejandro Delgado, said in recent comments to local media that he believed the Inter-American Development Bank would be prepared to support the project.
Mr Delgado said the cost of setting up such a tannery “would not be so high”, he estimated $500,000, and that the benefits would greatly outweigh this.
At the moment, small producers of soles can make enough for 400,000 pairs per year, but in 2013, Nicaragua produced 3 million pairs of shoes and had to import soles from Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico, he said.
He added that reduced logistics costs could bring the cost of a pair of soles down to $2 and he claimed there was a proposal for a similar project a few years ago with the funding coming from the embassy of the Netherlands in Nicaragua, but it fell through in the end.
