Leather

Lifting the value of products including skins and leather, and ensuring take of kangaroos by professionals is sustainable, will help grow the kangaroo industry.

Major Western brands, under refractory pressure from zealous animal welfare and social welfare groups based in the US, have shunned kangaroo leather. What now begs attention is how the Australian meat/leather industry should grapple with a ban that is bound to have a far-reaching adverse impact. And, what would be conservation's answers?

While volumes and values of leather increased, this came against a backdrop of spiralling costs for energy and inflation, besides ongoing issues with the cost for transport of materials, a report from Leather UK has said.

Nonprofits Textile Exchange and Leather Working Group have together launched a global initiative to address deforestation and promote sustainable practices within the leather industry to create transparent and equitable supply chains, protecting natural ecosystems.

Sustainable Leather Foundation heads to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region this May to train and equip local representatives with required tools to drive forward improvements in the leather value chain.

European trade body COTANCE has formed the Leather Traceability Cluster to align leather traceability schemes in a bid to reduce audit fatigue in tanneries and avoid unproductive costs for the leather value chain.

The slowdown in consumer demand in Europe and the United States is set to impact the Indian leather apparel and accessories (comprising bags, belts, and harnesses) industry, with revenues predicted to decline 7–8% in fiscal 2024.

Each stakeholder in the leather industry, be it the tanner, trader, supplier or customer must get involved to get leather to a safe place in the mind of new younger consumers, and throughout the supply network involved. There are no impossible hurdles for a determined leather industry to make great strides quickly and set an achievable target date with milestones.

Blackwashed much, leather is standing up as a material which is irrefutably a by-product of food production and could well be a waste on a huge scale of a natural material which instead is turned into something useful for society.

The Leather Manifesto was a call to action not just for the COP27 delegates themselves, but for all in the space of sustainable materials production.  As a natural material that is long-lasting, can be repaired or repurposed and at end of life will biodegrade, leather needs to be part of wider discussions towards a circular economy. This industry will continue to push the point that it can be part of the climate solution.