Leather Pipeline: traceability’s tenuous attraction
01/10/2019
It takes global brands to task for their lack of support and understanding of the current predicament the leather industry finds itself in. A further example of this, the report says, is the enthusiasm with which brands now want to drive traceability in the leather supply chain.
All this will do, according to the Leather Pipeline, is add new layers of bureaucracy and cost. It argues that systems that can trace hides to their country and even region of origin are already in place in many markets.
It asks: “Would a new traceability system change anything? If any of the big brands believe that the [current] standards are insufficient in the origins from which they are sourcing their material, they should simply refrain from buying or demand that the standards are raised. Traceability back to the individual animal will certainly not improve anything and will create nothing more than a monster of bureaucracy and additional costs.”
It also says that if traceability of hides to an individual animal is to become the standard and a barrier to dealing with global brands, small farmers and a wide range of raw materials, such as sheep and goat skins from Africa or Asia will remain excluded.
“This insistence on single and individual traceability of hides and skins could see brands deliver the killer blow to leather,” the report warns.
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