COTANCE says the EU is “virtually” the only market with no hide export restrictions
12/07/2013
Delegates representing national tanners’ associations in Italy, Spain, France, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Romania and Belgium were present. The matter to which delegates devoted most discussion time was the availability and price of raw hides and skins.
COTANCE delegates bemoaned a lack of awareness among European authorities of “the critical situation” of the leather industry with regard to raw materials. “Certain hides or skins, notably those required by the European and global high-end industries in the luxury, fashion and automotive sectors, are hard to find and fiercely sought, driving prices to levels that have become unsustainable,” COTANCE said in a statement after the annual meeting. “Under such circumstances, European tanners have no alternative but to pass on the price increase. Customers of tanners need to understand that there is no other option for the continued supply of high-quality leather. It is in Europe where they can find leather produced under the world’s most stringent environmental and health and safety conditions.”
According to the statement, European tanners, especially small and medium enterprises, have experienced over the last few years double-digit price increases for raw materials while increases in leather prices have remained “well below” these levels.
Jean François Aguinaga from the European Commission’s directorate general for enterprise and industry was the guest speaker.
According to the COTANCE statement, what Mr Aguinaga will have taken back to Brussels is the message that the leather industry needs “more incisive political will from national and European trade authorities for understanding the current momentum, and for more political vision for designing a roadmap for Europe’s Leather industry sustainable development”. The organisation called on the Commission to gather intelligence on this issue and use it to determine “effective remedies” to the situation. It said that, globally, the European Union is “virtually the only market without export restrictions on hides and skins”.
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