Leather authenticity workshop takes place in Portugal
30/01/2020
APIC president, Nuno Carvalho, opened the day, explaining that the association had made ‘Leather and Authenticity’ the theme of the workshop.
Maurizia Contu, representing Italian association, UNIC, and the European leather industry association, COTANCE, addressed this subject head on. She said the whole gamut of finished products that use leather, or claim to, need to be obliged to employ a labelling system similar to footwear’s to help the leather industry defend itself against unfair competition from makers of synthetic material.
Ms Contu then said that a lack of protection for leather’s authenticity also causes damage to consumers. “Consumers are being misled,” she said. “Imitation products use ‘leather’ as a term to be more attractive to consumers , convincing people to pay more, when their products do not contain any leather.”
Next, the director of ICEC (the Italian quality certification institute for the leather sector), Sabrina Frontini, explained in detail the certification programme her organisation has developed for the tanning industry. She said that around 120 companies have been certified so far, and that, while 90% of them are in Italy, ICEC has also certified tanneries in Spain, Serbia, Tunisia and other countries.
She said traceability of raw material was a recent addition to ICEC’s focus, including detailed information to offer buyers of leather reassurance on the subject of animal welfare. “There is no ISO standard for this,” Ms Frontini said, “but a lot of tanners are now working on this complex topic.”
The workshop took place at CTIC, the leather industry technology and research centre in Alcanena.
Image shows APIC president, Nuno Carvalho (left) at the start of the event, with host Alcino Martinho, director general of CTIC.
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