Well-heeled shoppers in New York, Paris, Tokyo and other global fashion centers are beginning to see a new name, Taytu, beside familiar Guccis and Chanels among the ladies’ handbags in exclusive shops.
Ethiopia, home to the largest livestock population in Africa, produces and exports millions of hides annually, mainly in the form of semiprocessed leather. Eyeing higher profits, Ethiopia is moving to develop its own trademarked leather products. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is helping Ethiopia develop its leather processing and branding sector; the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and other development groups are also assisting.
“The Ethiopian government supports an export sector of high-value, finished leather products, not semiprocessed leather,” said Taytu Trade and Industry Managing Director Salpi Nalbandian.
Taytu markets the products of 12 Ethiopian manufacturers of leather goods. The consortium was formed in 2006, when the Ethiopian government identified the leather industry as a potentially lucrative sector.
For example, Cabretta leather, prized for golf gloves, because of its strength and elasticity, brings the Ethiopian herder $2 for the skin needed for one glove, $5 to the exporter of the leather, and $25 to the retailer of a glove manufactured outside of Ethiopia.
Another Ethiopian leather product, the Bati goat skin, is reputed to produce the softest, finest suede. Ethiopian herders make about $10 for the skin need to make one suede coat. The leather exporter collects about $40-$50 after tanning. The coat, which is manufactured outside Ethiopia, will bring at least $400 to the retailer, according to Light Years IP, a group that helps developing countries spur growth through the use of intellectual property rights.
Taytu handbags sold by the upscale Barneys New York fetch prices around $1,500; one particular Taytu handbag design is priced at $22,000, according to the company’s Web site. Taytu made contact with Barneys and other high-end foreign retailers by participating in trade shows in New York, Paris and Los Angeles. Theory, another high-end retailer of clothing and accessories, is considering marketing Taytu bags, according to Nalbandian.
Entering the international market is difficult, and Nalbandian credits USAID and UNIDO for helping to make that happen.
“It involves a long chain of work, getting the raw materials, meeting delivery deadlines, correspondence, understanding the work and business conditions abroad. We must win the confidence and trust of foreign buyers,” she said. She said UNIDO provided expertise in design and manufacturing and USAID, in marketing. “They have guided Ethiopia into the high-end market niche,” she said. “They have advised that Ethiopia should not compete with China and India in producing for the mass market.”
Taytu’s sales revenues have risen from $25,000 in 2006, when the consortium was formed, to $85,000 in the last fiscal year. Five months into the current fiscal year, which runs from July to June, Taytu has received about $70,000 in foreign orders. Sales from its shop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, also are rising sharply as a result of Taytu’s entry into foreign markets.
“When local newspapers wrote about Taytu’s success in New York and other cities, Ethiopian consumers became excited about the Taytu name,” said Teshome Kebede Redie, a USAID contractor working in the Ethiopian leather sector.
Nalbandian said as Taytu profits rise, it will wean itself from USAID financial support. USAID pays the Taytu shop rent in Addis Ababa and the salaries of the shop staff. The agency also bought the computers and furniture in the Taytu shop.
In another attempt to extract potential leather profits, one Ethiopian leather company, Jonzo PLC, plans to enter the shoe business, which absorbs 60 percent of the world’s leather output. Now, Jonzo specializes in leather garments and handbags, some of which are marketed by Taytu.
“Footwear is a big opportunity for Ethiopia,” said Jonzo General Manager Solomon Yesuf. He said he expects Jonzo to start shipping footwear to the St. Louis-based Brown Shoe Company in 2009.
USAID’s Redie said that many shoe companies in the United States, Germany and Italy are looking away from China to shoe suppliers in other regions because of rising prices that Chinese manufacturers are charging.
Jonzo is building a shoe factory on the outskirts of Addis Ababa and expects to have the capacity to make 55,000 pairs a day by the end of 2009. Its goal is to export half the production. The Ethiopian government facilitates the growth of the shoe industry by providing customs facilities, bonded warehouses and concessionary rates for land rental at the factory site.
Getting the financing for expansion from Ethiopian banks has presented a challenge for Jonzo. But USAID has played a helpful role by offering to guarantee 50 percent of the loans as an enticement for an Ethiopian bank to put up the other 50 percent.
A number of elephants have died after eating plastic from a garbage dump in Chobe National Park in Botswana. The Chobe District Council says it has no choice but to continue dumping trash at the site.
Elephants, hyenas, baboons and birds all gather at the dumping site in Chobe to feed. Just this year, three elephants have died after consuming plastic from the garbage heap.
Thunya Sedodoma, the principal wildlife warden in the park, said that last year, plastics were found in the stomach of a dead elephant. She said it is not uncommon to see plastic in the feces of elephants. Sedodoma said that this year alone, the park has recorded over 70 deaths of wildlife, all related to feeding from the garbage dump.
Isau Mbanga, the Chobe District Council secretary said they have no choice but to continue dumping garbage at the site while they construct a new landfill nearby: “We have a serious land problem in the Chobe, unlike other district councils. We are building the second landfill at the same site because we are trying to minimize land use,” he said. He said that the Chobe District Council does not have compactors to bury the rubbish, although it is hoped that they will be able to buy the equipment within a few months.
Mbanga did say that the new landfill will have an electric fence meant to keep wildlife, including elephants, away from the garbage.
Now I won’t pretend to have any grand ideas about how to solve the problem of elephants consuming plastic from a landfill in Botswana. Nor do I think it would be fair to complain, as I am not living a plastic-free life. However, it is a poignant and painful reminder to me of how no trash ever simply “goes away.”
In Sonoma County, California, where I live, we filled up our landfill in 2005, and now have reserved space at the new one being built on the Cortina Indian Rancheria in Colusa County, 150 miles away. On an Indian Reservation!
This story of the Botswana elephants is just another daily reminder to myself to be careful, to do everything I can to keep as much out of the waste stream as possible. Another reminder to be diligent about using cloth bags, reusable containers and lunchboxes, to keep composting, even in the city, to recycle my boxes, and wash out my plastic bags.
CAIRO, EGYPT – Apple’s iPhone 3G will soon be available in Egypt, and Vodafone Egypt is reportedly gearing up to be the first mobile operator to sell the high-tech gadget in the Arab world’s most populous country.
Customers nationwide can pre-register online and be notified when the phone arrives to Vodafone Egypt’s stores, according to a telecom source who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Vodafone — the world’s leading international mobile communications group – sealed a deal with Apple in May to bring iPhone 3G to 10 countries where the mobile operator is present. According to news reports, Vodafone now sells the phone in Australia, Italy, New Zealand and Portugal, and it is expected to bring it to Egypt, the Czech Republic, Greece, India, South Africa and Turkey later this year.
Up to now Apple has insisted on exclusive agreements with carriers, striking deals with AT&T in the US, O2 in Britain, Orange in France, and Deutsche Telekom in Germany. In exchange for exclusivity, Apple takes a cut of the revenue that wireless operators collect for voice and data services each month, something no other phone maker is believed to get.
iPhone 3G combines all the revolutionary features of iPhone with 3G networking that is twice as fast as the first generation iPhone, built-in GPS for expanded location based mobile services, and iPhone 2.0 software which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and runs the hundreds of third party applications already built with the recently released iPhone SDK.
Scientists in the remote Bale mountains of southern Ethiopia are in a race against time to save the world’s rarest wolf.
Rabies passed from domestic dogs is threatening to kill up to two-thirds of all Ethiopian wolves.
Scientists from the UK and Ethiopia are currently vaccinating wolf packs to prevent the spread of the disease.
The population has dwindled to as few as 500, as a result of human encroachment into their habitat.
Vaccination campaign
Dr Claudio Sillero of Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Unit (WildCRU) says vaccinations are the only hope of maintaining the Ethiopian wolf population.
The wolf makes a break for freedom after a successful vaccination
“If left unchecked, rabies is likely to kill over two-thirds of all wolves in Bale’s Web Valley, and spread further, with wolves dying horrible deaths and numbers dwindling to perilously low levels,” he added.
The plan is to vaccinate whole families or packs, typically a group with six adults. When these packs come into contact with unvaccinated wolves or dogs they will not catch the disease.
The WildCRU team and the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Authority say so far they have been very successful, catching and treating more than 40 wolves.
The wolves are not injured in the trapping process, some even return to the traps once vaccinated in search of food.
Mating season
Dr Sillero says the wolves’ behaviour at this time of year makes them particularly vulnerable to catching diseases from other animals.
The wolves reign there, I like to think of them as the guardians of the high mountains of Africa
Dr Claudio Sillero, WildCRU
“Right now we are in the middle of the mating season. Family groups erode; females and males mate outside the packs, some females are even courted by feral dogs. This leads to increased transmission of the disease.”
The Bale mountains in southern Ethiopia form the most extensive high mountain plateau in Africa.
As well as being home to Ethiopian wolves, the plateau now also has an estimated population of 40,000 dogs. Brought in by shepherds to round up sheep, these dogs have become a reservoir for rabies.
About 10,000 of these dogs are vaccinated against rabies every year but this has not prevented transmission.
Wolf ‘king’
Outbreaks of the disease seem to occur in cycles. The researchers say they noticed the disease as far back as 1989 and previously ran a vaccination campaign in 2003.
“It’s a powerful example of the importance of the science and practice of wildlife conservation combined in the effort to deliver practical solutions,” explains Professor David Macdonald, director of WildCRU.
Dr Claudio Sillero sees the wolf’s survival as key to the continuation of the whole highland ecosystem. As a top carnivore, it is responsible for controlling the population of smaller grazing herbivores, especially rodents.
“The wolves reign there; I like to think of them as the guardians of the high mountains of Africa,” he says.
The vaccination campaign is due to continue until at least mid November.
Serena Williams will visit Kenya for the first time so as to officially inaugurate a school built through partnership between the Build African Schools initiative and Hewlett Packard.
The opening of the Serena Williams Secondary School in Matooni will be held on Friday, November 14.
By building schools and equipping them with electricity, computers and other teaching aids, Build African Schools and Hewlett Packard offer children educational opportunities and choices that will ultimately empower them to determine their own future.
World number two Serena Williams will spend three days in Kenya.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA – Japan today donated 9,600 metric tons of wheat worth over 47 million birr to the Ethiopian Grain Trade Enterprise.
Speaking at the handing over ceremony, Japanese Ambassador to Ethiopia, Kinichi komano, said the donation has a significant contribution towards stabilizing the market.
Ethiopia and Japan have longstanding and good relations and Japan has been providing assistance in various sectors so as to further enhance the economic growth being registered in the country, Komano said.
Komano added that his country would consolidate its support to the development works to be carried out in the country.
Ethiopian Grain Trade Enterprise (EGTE) General Manager, Berhane Haile, on his part said that the donation made by the government of Japan has a significant contribution to stabilize the market.
The wolves reign there, I like to think of them as the guardians of the high mountains of Africa 
Serena Williams will visit Kenya for the first time so as to officially inaugurate a school built through partnership between the Build African Schools initiative and Hewlett Packard.