Two new leatherbiz blog entries
06/06/2016
With ‘Opacity’ as the title of his column for June, David Peters discusses at length the changes that the leather supply chain is experiencing as a result of current high levels of demand for information and transparency. In spite of professed desire in all quarter for greater transparency, opacity remains, he argues.
This is having a big impact on the way tanners operate in today’s market, David Peters argues. He says: “We have a two-tier system that operates using two distinct standards. The first embraces all the bells and whistles as these Olympic-like processors compete for the medals in various hues. Then there is the covert group that, like the dark web, operates in small peer-to-peer networks and allows access to cheaper pricing.”
Far from placing all the blame for this at the door of the tanners themselves, he says there are many finished product brands who know exactly how to make this dual system work to their advantage. “It’s ironic,” he says, “that the very same organisations that demand retribution for fake knock-offs of their finished products seemingly perpetuate an alternative supply chain that can only deliver cheaper pricing through violating or cheating.”
In his latest column, Sam Setter pays a warm tribute to the late Mohammad Rezaul Karim Ansari, founder and ex-CEO of Karim Leather Limited in Bangladesh. With many question-marks hanging over the leather industry in Bangladesh, Sam Setter argues that what Mr Ansari worked hard for and achieved proves that it is possible for tanners in that part of the world to meet very high quality, environmental and social standards.
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