The leather goods industries face several difficulties or challenges. Experts in this area must be aware of the challenges in order to find the means to stop them. The challenges discussed in this article, however, have been addressed with appropriate solutions.
1. Material Acquisition Problems
The leather goods industries face the problem of material acquisition. Materials for item production are often in short supply. The way to obtain some of them is very difficult as there are few or no local producers of them. Most of the materials for the leather goods productions are imported from foreign lands to the country. This makes them very expensive, resulting in high production costs and exorbitant prices for the products. This has seriously affected their sponsorship and sales.
This problem can be curbed by establishing more local industries that produce these materials for leather goods productions. This would invariably lower the cost of them and the cost of products produced from them, resulting in more buying and patronage. Also, if some of the materials are imported, the government should reduce the import duty on them to allow customers to buy locally made leather products.
2. Lack of customer confidence in locally made leather products
Some leather craftsmen do not use good materials in their productions, but they also charge high prices for their products. Some are very dishonest. They lie to their clients that they have used natural leather for their productions while they have used synthetic leather. This has diminished the trust that buyers have in local leather craftsmen. They now prefer to buy foreign leather goods that have quality as their hallmark as opposed to locally produced items that are not durable.
One remedy to this problem is for leather artisans to be honest with their customers and speak the truth to them. They also have to use good or quality materials for their leather productions. This would reinforce patronage and purchase of the products.
3. Compliance with marking requirements
Most leather craftsmen do not meet the stamp requirements in the leather goods sector. These include quality control, finishing, packaging, etc. This may be due to deficiency in skill acquisition. This has explained the low patronage of locally made leather products.
All leather goods companies should join the professional leather goods association in an attempt to remedy the situation. The association must enforce the badge requirements for all leather goods businesses. The penalty for non-compliance with the requirements should be imposed on violators to deter other leather craftsmen.
In addition, training should be offered to leather craftsmen on how to maintain these distinctive requirements. Periodically, workshops, seminars, forums and talks should be offered to leather craftsmen to bring them up to date with modern production techniques, finishes, etc. In addition, readings on work ethics, moral and human values, attitudes, etc. should be given. If these measures are taken, all leather goods companies in the country would comply with the distinctive requirements.