A new private joint-stock company has been created in Turkmenistan that will hold a monopoly on leather exports from the country, according to the Interfax news agency. Turkmenderi has been established by Turkmenistan’s Textiles Ministry and the national association of livestock organisations.

A government official noted that from now on, all individual livestock breeders, companies and organisations and individual business people, are banned from exporting leather and can only sell leather on the domestic market. The State Customs Service has recently been instructed to allow leather exports only by Turkmenderi.