FARAN TANNING MACHINERY IN INDIA – The first fur tanning factory in India is the Furan tanning machine, which opened on Monday in Jodhpur district, about 30km south of Lucknow.
The facility employs more than 100 people to process about 40,000 skins every day, according to the company.
The factory produces the skins in batches of 100,000 at a time and then exports them to China for sale to Asian markets.
The process is one of the largest in the world and employs around 4,000 people.
The company said it had invested Rs 1.4 crore in the facility.
In July 2017, the factory’s founder and president Ramkumar Jagde died.
Jagde was a retired scientist and a former vice president of the Bharatiya Science and Technology Research Organisation, the national research agency of India.
“We were the last company in the country to produce fur in the factory,” said Jagde’s son, Pratik, who is now a lawyer.
He said the company had invested in machinery, chemicals and equipment.
The Jagde family also owns a farm in Jamshedpur district.
India has been a major exporter of fur and leather products to Asia for more than two centuries, and the country has become a major market for Chinese tanning companies in recent years.
The tanning industry in the region accounts for nearly 50% of the country’s gross domestic product.
India exported $30 billion worth of leather and fur last year.