Thursday, September 17, 2020

Red Tape

Our company is 100% export, so we don't pay duty on imported leather.  The problem with this is that 30% of this leather ends up as scrap due to lost yield.  Our monthly total usage is about 500,000 sf, so 30% is 150,000 sf, which means that every month the hides of about 3,000 cows go to waste.

However, instead of going to the landfill, we can sell these bits and pieces to local scrap dealers, who use them to make wallets, key chains, phone covers...  To make sure we're not selling un-taxed hides locally, the Thai Tax Office needs to confirm how much scrap we have to ensure that our books balance.   To prove that we have 30% scrap, they weigh the bags, and then, we must piece together 1 kg samples of scrap, so they can be converted into square feet.

Here's the painstaking job of making a scrap leather puzzle.

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