mendous expansion since its inception with vari-
International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 4, Issue 12, December-2013 2070
ISSN 2229-5518
Comparative Analysis of Ethiopian
Footwear Competitiveness: The Quality
Dimensions of Manufacturing
Mengistu Ashebre, gebremeskel Kahsay, Hadush Beerhe
IJSER
standards.
—————————— ——————————
mendous expansion since its inception with vari-
The manufacturing sector has been making up a large and important segment of the industrial sector in Ethiopia [1]. To persuade this momen- tum, the growth and transformation plan, the five year strategic plan, of the country has made an assignment that the manufacturing sector should be developed by a faster rate than the other eco- nomic sources to meet the transformation from agriculture to industry led economy [2]. This in- dustrial expansion is being promoted based on the aim of both export orientation and import substi- tution through the persuasion of various encour- agements for investment. The review of the GTP demonstrates that the industrial sector has shown
10.8 % and 15.0 % growth rate by the year
2009/2010 and 2010/2011, respectively, which
shared 13.4 GDP in 2010/2011 [3].
To anchor this at solid foundation, the country
has categorized the manufacturing sector into four groups namely leather and leather products, tex- tile and garments, metal and engineering, and chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing in-
dustries as driving economic corridors. The foot- wear manufacturing which is the largest compo- nent of Leather and leather products manufactur- ing industries in Ethiopia have lived with a tre-
ous encouragements to foster import substitution and foreign earnings. Local industries are manu- facturing footwear almost all of leather uppers. However, the quality of the inland leather foot- wear is a chronic problem that demands conten- tious concern. A number of imported footwear products have substituted the market position of the inland products both in the national and in- ternational markets. Equivalent leather upper im- ported footwear, branded as CAT, Reebok, Nike, Timberland and others, are dominated the local market in rapid fashion.
In the contrary, various literatures have appre- ciated that Ethiopian hair sheep skins and goats originating from the highland are appreciated by the international leather industry because of their high strength at lower thickness and flexibility which makes them very suitable for gloving, gar- ment leather and shoe upper [4]. These skins have fine fiber structure that lends itself to good quality suede. But 25 % of skins and hides are made usa- ble [5] because of low quality pelts supply. It is because these reasons that, though there is great growth in footwear demand, the inland footwear manufacturing industries have acute a shortcom- ing to deliver quality products to both national and international markets [6]. The country leather and leather products export, in 2011/2012, has
IJSER © 2013 http://www.ijser.org
International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 4, Issue 12, December-2013 2071
ISSN 2229-5518
reached 206 million US Dollar [7] of which the crust and finished leather export shares 89.58 per- cent and shoe export shares 9.08 percent and the remaining percent is taken by the other leather products [8]. The large export at crust and fin- ished leather is not due to surplus, but due to low consumption by the local shoe manufacturing industries. The shoe manufacturing firms are not so profitable but are sheltered for survival, though there is too much supply for leather uppers. Hence, this research has risen to investigate the design and performance quality of the inland footwear products through comparative analysis with equivalent i.e. leather upper imported foot- wear products of known brands.
The leather industry is one of the oldest and largest industries that occupy a place of promi- nence in the global economy in view of its massive potential for employment, growth and exports. The world demand for the leather and leather products was USD 24.3 billion in the 2001 [9] and it stood at USD 68.57 billion in 2003 [10]which
then has skyrocketed to USD 347.50 billion in 2010
World in that the annual production of leather is around 7.7 billion square feet accounting for over
20% of total global output [11]. Europe is also an important player in the international trade of leather as it represents 25% of the world produc- tion of leather and it is also the largest and most dynamic consumer market of leather goods [12].
The leather and leather products include fin-
ished leather, leather uppers and footwear, leather goods and garments, and saddler. Leather upper footwear is the largest component of leather products in the global market, accounting for more than 70 percent of the global leather con- sumption [11] and 58.5 percent of the global foot- wear types [13]. Various censuses revealed that the distribution of the footwear manufacturing companies has been radically skewed to the North Asia and then slightly to India and central Asia, and south East Asia [13]. For instance, the annual leather footwear output in China is about 14 bil- lion pairs accounting for over 70% of global out- put [11].
Worldwide footwear consumption has dou- bled every 20 years, from 2.5 billion pairs in 1950
to more than 20 billion pairs of shoes in 2005 as
illustrated in figure 1 [14]. The worldwide per
IJSER
(11). The main reason to this sloppy increment of
demand is that leather and leather products con-
tinue to be consumed in large volumes in devel-
oped countries like the USA, Europe, Australia
and Japan (10].
China is the largest producer, consumer and
exporter of leather and leather products in the
capita consumption of footwear has considerably
increased from year to year: for instance, from 1
pair of shoes per year for every person in the
world in 1950 to almost 2.6 pairs of shoes in 2005.
Per capital consumption is also different among the various countries: 6.9 in USA (the largest in the world), 2.2 in China, 0.5 in Vietnam [14].
Figure 1: Global Footwear Consumption with population growth [14]
The leather industry is felt to be the call of the day to Ethiopia to pursue and ensure broad based economic development. Ethiopia is possessing 90- million livestock pelt population [4] of which 48
Percent is cattle, 27 Percent are sheep and the re- maining 25 percent are goat [15]. With these larg- est livestock resources, the country is considered
as first in Africa and the 10th in the world. However, the country’s share to the global leather and leather products market has shown low con- tribution since its inception. Quantitatively, the share in 2001 was only 0.00023 percent [9] then has slightly increased to 0.000597 percent in 2010 [7]. The import and export of footwear in Ethio-
IJSER © 2013 http://www.ijser.org
International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 4, Issue 12, December-2013 2072
ISSN 2229-5518
pia, referring the data from Revenue and Customs Authority, in 2011 reaches a value of over 35.63 million USD, representing a 9.82 percent annual increment since 2007. The export has a share of
14.80 percent and the import has a share of 85.20
percent with that the import shows -2.66 percent
increment and the export 14.08 percent since 2007.
This illustrated that the high demand of the shoe
in the country is substituted by the imported shoes.
The quality of the products is defined as its degree of fitness to meet the needs and desires of the customer. The quality of products can be measured in terms of various requirements; after the product has been delivered to the customer. The most common quality definitions in manufac- turing include: Conformance, Performance, Relia- bility, Features, Durability and Serviceability. The relative importance of these definitions is based on the preferences of each individual customer. It is easy to see how different customers can have different definitions in mind when they speak of high product quality.
In the case of leather products, the quality of
sented to end users and 14 retailers in April, 2013. The response rate for the end users is 94 percent and for the retailers is 79 percent. Data were then processed using descriptive analysis.
Ethiopian is a country of abundant resources in livestock for leather and leather products man- ufacturing. Currently there are 27 tanneries and
15 shoe manufacturing industries in Ethiopia to
persuade this agro business. These tanner plants
are estimated capacity of processing 27.03million
of sheep skin (37 percent), 13.83 million goatskin
(44 percent) and 2.34million cattle hides (7.6 per- cent) to the crust or/and finished leather [15]. Ethiopia, then, is producing finished leather to the global market. The country is also reaching the leather footwear abroad market though venturing leading companies’ brands, such as from Germa- ny and Italy (John, 2007).
The shoe manufacturing is becoming an in-
creasing business since the last five years because
of that the government has considered as first pri-
ory area of economic corridor. However the quali-
IJSER
the product can be measured in terms of two properties [16]. These include: aesthetic value which includes the colour evenness, grain fine- ness, pore appearance, absence of defects, surface feel, flexibility, stretch and in general those prop- erties that can be perceived by senses and as- sessed subjectively. The other dimension is the use property. This determines the fitness of the foot- wear to withstand environmental conditions and physical efforts to which it will be subjected in practical use by the customer, by conducting the corresponding tests or standard analyses. The dimensional stability of the leather upper is also becoming mandatory requirement [17] that the leather upper footwear should possess.
The data used in this study were collected through the administration of a questionnaire that consisted of two types: for the end users and re- tailers which have eleven and eight items, respec- tively. The questionnaire process was designed to collect the customers’ voice about the local leather upper footwear and to assess the possible reasons that lower the market position of these products. The questionnaire was translated from the English language into Tigrigna by local experts, in order to elicit responses from subjects within the local area and to make the survey sensitive to cultural factors. Then the questionnaire was pretested be- fore it was administered to end users and retailers in the city of Mekelle. 95 questionnaires were pre-
ty of the inland footwear is a contentious problem
by the local users, though the Ethiopian finished
leather attracted the world because of the fibre
structure. To mere this speculated quality prob-
lem, a comparison analysis has been carried out
between the Ethiopian leather footwear products and with the equivalent imported products of known brands.
In comparison analysis, retailers and end users have good knowledge to determine the market competitiveness and reputation of the specific product [18]. Hence, this research has been devel- oped by approaching both the retailers and the end users through structured questionnaire. For the development of this discussion, the research has inferred the products of Sheba leather indus- try, the Anbesa shoe factory, TiKur-Abay Shoe Factory and the Peacock shoe factory as repre- sentatives to the inland products due to their business age, size, product variability and reputa- tion.
This comparison analysis is issued to critically
investigate the competitiveness of inland shoe
products with the equivalent imported ones on
the perspective of the end users. To develop this comparison analysis, samples have been taken randomly from both shoe retailers and end users.
In Ethiopian shoe market is composed of both lo- cally manufactured and imported products. The
IJSER © 2013 http://www.ijser.org
International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 4, Issue 12, December-2013 2073
ISSN 2229-5518
observation on market segment revealed that im- ported shoe products are more populated than the inland manufactured shoe products. It is common and usual observation that these imported shoe products are found in almost all boutiques and shoe markets. This trend of frequent use of im- ported products is ever increasing due to the dy- namic nature in design and aesthetic value of these products, especially for those on the young age.
Participants are approached to provide their
yearly shoe consumption. The assessment illus- trated that most of the customers in this study buy shoe twice a year. The second distance of yearly consumption is three times per year. Significant number of respondents also buy shoe once a year. In this assessment it also discussed to assort the frequency to use the Ethiopian shoe products. As demonstrated in Figure 2 B, more than 67 percent respondents give less attention to use local prod- ucts, in other side, most of the time they are vul- nerable to use imported shoe products.
Figure 2: ConsumptiIon of shJoe products; AS) yearly consumpEtion and B) frequeRncy of using Ethiopian Products
The different inland shoe producers are also
compared among each other to reveal their repu- tation and to concern on the fact that do customers rely focus on the products brand. As demonstrat- ed in the figure 3 the Anbesa shoe products and the Tikur Abay Shoe products are found more
popular. Significant number of respondents also
buys the Sheba shoe products. Moreover, 95.24 percent customers due attantion to the product brands while purchasing locally produced foot- wear.
Figure 3: Comparison of Ethiopian representative shoe producers among each other
The average price of the Ethiopian leather footwear products, inferring the price estimation of the respondents, is quoted as $21 while average price of the equivalent imported leather shoe products is $ 67, which exceeds three times the price of the inland shoe products.
In the other hand, the assessment result
demonstrated that customers buy Ethiopian
products mostly because of their low purchasing
price. Some also voiced that they buy such prod- ucts to encourage and appreciate local shoe manu- facturers. In other side, customers buy imported equivalent shoe products due to their engineering features such as their essence of comfort, their architecture view i.e. the aesthetic value and long service life. Figure 4 shows the customer percep- tion to buy inland shoe products and imported ones.
IJSER © 2013 http://www.ijser.org
International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 4, Issue 12, December-2013 2074
ISSN 2229-5518
Figure 4.: Customer perception to purchase inland and overseas shoe products
From this assortment and investigation, we can deduce that the local manufactured shoe products lack engineering features such as ensur- ing comfort, aesthetic value and short service life. Most of the respondents have demonstrated that
the Ethiopian manufactured shoe products have service life of 6 months to one year, while the av- erage life of the equivalent imported shoe prod- ucts is two to three years as illustrated in figure 5.
IJSER
Figure 5: Estimated service life for the imported and inland shoe products
Customers are asked to provide their voice on the reason that why Ethiopian shoe products ex- perience short service life: to define causes of fail- ure. As demonstrated in figure 6 A, the outsole failure is the main reason that significantly deter- mines the reputability of the local shoe products in terms of service time. The outsole is being easi- ly and suddenly breakdowns which determines the lack of flexibility of the footwear outsole. Ease
of wearing of the outsole is also mentioned as a chronic problem that shortened the service life of local footwear. This ascertains that the outsole lacks to withstand resistance to abrasion. Wearing, fading and breakdown of the upper leather also substantially determines the service life. These problems mostly appear due to low water re- sistance and colour fastness nature of the upper leather.
Figure 6: Factors that cause the Ethiopia to experience A) short service life and B) discomfort while on use
IJSER © 2013 http://www.ijser.org
International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 4, Issue 12, December-2013 2075
ISSN 2229-5518
In the same manner, the assessment has discussed on the factors that describe for the inland products to be deficient in their suitability to use. Most of the respondents determined that the sole part of the shoe is so stiff and inflexible with rough nature. This recalls to the shortage in quality of whole sole and whole shoe flexing of the footwear. This situation harms the foot of the user. Significant number of respondents also demonstrated that local footwear accumulate heat, de- hydrate the foot and then create bad smell inside the shoe. This recalls to the lack of breathability i.e. water vapour per- meability of the upper leather.
Few of retails have been approached to provide their de- liverables to validate the end users voice. It is a rule of thumb that retailers are more power full for such ideas due to their direct contact to the end users and their closeness to forecast for the market trend from the past experience.
In this assessment, thirteen retailers of which four local shoe, six imported shoe and three mixed products market shops have been addressed randomly. The local marketers have shoe products from Picook, Tikur Abay, Sheba, Ambesa and other local shoe manufacturing company. Marketers of the imported equivalent footwear have products branded as
CAT, Nike, Reebok, Timberland and other known brands.
view especially on the finishing activities, such as the stitch- ing of the upper parts, attaching of the upper with the sole, thread colour selection, etc.
This research has risen to investigate the competitiveness of inland footwear products when compared with equivalent imported products through descriptive analysis. From this comparison analysis, inland shoe products are experiencing different short comings. Customers are buying these prod- ucts due their low price. Even with this low price, the in- ferred customers are not purchasing these products in fre- quent manner but so rare. These participative customers have identified the possible shortcomings of the inland shoe products. The products are exhibiting short service life, most- ly determined as 6 months to one year. This is due the fact that the sole part of this product is easily wearable and sud- denly breaks down while on use. The upper part of the leather footwear is also remarkably known for ease of fading, breaking and wearing. This fact pointed out that the leather upper is experiencing ease of fastening to rubbing and low water resistance, which is the unwanted character of uppers. Moreover, the leather upper possesses limitations on the flex- ing and abrasion resistance, which determined the lifelong
IJSER
Through this assessment, it has been observed that, most of
the local product marketers are dedicated for single product
brand, i.e. for single company as big retailers, sometimes the
factory itself. But the imported footwear marketers most
importantly populate their shops with various product brands. The exported products also found in almost every boutique, sometimes with the local products as well.
Retailers have indentified that the average price of the
Ethiopian made leather shoe products with an average of $28
whereas the average value of the imported shoe products, taking the value of known branded products such as Nike, Reebok, Timberland and CAT, as $83. This is three times the price of the Ethiopian leather shoe products, which is equiva- lent to the end users response. But retailers have responded that most customers are more prone to the imported shoe products when both products have been brought together. Retailers, those having both locally manufactured and im- ported shoe products, have pronouncedly proven this fact. Males at their young age are more exposed to this situation.
The retailers also orderly set customers’ vulnerability to-
wards different criteria. They rated the footwear comfort as the prior requirement followed by the aesthetic value and service life. Purchasing price is found at a third distance. Re- tailer hence reason out that customers are vulnerable to im- ported products because of their comfort to use, architectural view and long service life through maintaining its views for long. Some retailers have mentioned additional shortcom- ings of the inland manufactured shoe products that wind buyers towards the imported products. They noted that there is no innovation in design of outsole and the shoe as whole and hence local products possess of the same design at all times. They also marked that these local products lack
suitability of the leather and even shorten the service life at
large.
The breathability nature of the footwear upper is not up to the job. This enforces the local footwear to produce high heat accumulation at short usage period and to dehydrate the foot. The sole component of the footwear is so stiff and inflexible that limits the suitability to use. This ascertained that the local footwear has acute shortages on possessing the whole sole and whole shoe flexing requirements.
These reasons recall to the design and performance fail-
ures of the local footwear. Both the upper leather and the
sole components are experiencing various pitfalls to possess
the aesthetic values and use properties, hence, it is wise to recommend that local tannery plants and sole manufacturer should look into their supplied products to determine the quality requirements and the gabs. Tannery plant that pro- duce finished leather for footwear upper consumption should regularly measure and determine the physical and mechanical properties of the uppers. The sole component manufacturers had better to investigate the outsole design and the performance measures through the art technology.
[1] UNIDO (Unite Nations Industrial Development Organi- zations), “Investment Opportunities for Development”, Mil- lennium Cities Initiatives, Vienna, 2009.
[2] MoFED (Ministry of Finance and Economic Develop- ment), “Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) 2010/11-
2014/15”, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2010, (Draft)
[3] MoFED (Ministry of Finance and Economic Develop- ment), (), “Growth and Transformation Plan (2010/11-
IJSER © 2013 http://www.ijser.org
International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 4, Issue 12, December-2013 2076
ISSN 2229-5518
2014/15)”, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2012, (Annual Pro- gress Report for F.Y. 2010/11)
[4] UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Or- ganization), “Leather and leather products for the global market: Made in Ethiopia” 2012
[5] John A. (2007), “Industry Assessment and Benchmarking: Ethiopian Leather Sector”, ecbp, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
[6] Kleemann, G., “Evaluation of the Ectoparasite Control Pro- grams in Amhara, Tigray and Afar: Findings and recommen- dations for ongoing and rolling-out activities”, Private Sector Development Component, Engineering Capacity Build- ing Program (ECBP), PN: 05.2029.6-001.00, 2008
[7] MoI (Ministry of Industry), (2012), “semiannual Gazettee”, Vol.1, No. 1.
[8] RCA (Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority), “Im- port and export report”, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 2012
[9] Mekonnen B. and Gezahegn A., “The Leather Sector: Growth strategies through Integrated Value Chain”, Ethiopi- an Development Research Institute (EDRI), Addis Aba- ba, Ethiopia, 2008
[10] Ghosh S. D., (2005), “Diagnostic Study Report, for Leather Goods Cluster, Santiniketan” Ministry of Small Industries Service Institute, Kolkata, India
[11] TDAP (Trade development authority of Pakistan), (), “Leather Market in China” Commercial Section, Consulate General of Pakistan, Chengdu, China, 2011
[12] EENPACT, “Leather Sector Report”, Europe, accessed for www.eenpact.ed accessing date, July 20, 2013
[13] IBISWorld, “Global Footwear Manufacturing: Key statis- tics”, 2010
[14] Shahin R., Theodoros S. and Gareth C., “Recycling of Footwear Products: A Position Paper Prepared”, Centre for Sustainable Manufacturing and Reuse/recycling Tech- nologies (SMART), Loughborough University, 2007
[15] Haimanot A., “Review of the Ethiopian leather, leather prod- ucts Industry” The Leather Core Group. Jan. 2007
[16] INESCOP (Center for Technology And Innovation), “Manual For Oxazolidine Tanned Leather: Enviromentally Friendly Oxazolidine-Tanned Leather (LIFE08
ENV/E/000140)”, accessed on June 21, 2013, available at
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/project/Projects
/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.showFile&rep=file&fil=O
XATAN_Manual_Curticion.pdf
[17] Cheng K., Naton, L., and Peter C., “Effects of Drying Pro- cesses and Fatliquoring on Resiliency of Leather”, Agricul- tural Research Service, USA, 2007
[18] Ulrich,T. and Eppinger, S., “Product Design and Develop- ment”, 3rd edition, McGraw Hill, Bost, 2004
IJSER © 2013 http://www.ijser.org