ZIMBABWE sold 28 tonnes of elephant hide on Friday to both domestic and foreign buyers at auction for 23.2 million Zimbabwe dollars. The auction was conducted at the headquarters of the country’s National Parks and Wildlife department in Harare. The hide is used to manufacture high quality leather products. Last year 80 tonnes of hide fetched only 17.8 million Zimbabwe dollars, said Willas Makombe, National Parks and Wildlife director. But not everyone was happy with the higher prices. One Japanese buyer, Masayoshi Takashima, president of S & T Trading Co Ltd of Japan, said “prices are going up so sharply. It may be impossible for the end user to pay such high prices in Japan.” Zimbabwe was one of three southern African states, along with Namibia and Botswana, which won a bitter battle to have an ivory trade ban relaxed at a Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Harare last June.
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