Hide waste will continue in 2020, LHCA warns
The Leather and Hide Council of America (LHCA) has warned that the phenomenon of cattle hides going to waste rather than be made into leather, which came to light last year, will continue in 2020.
In a statement giving its outlook for this year, LHCA said: “The leather industry has experienced an extremely tough market for the last several years, which will likely continue in 2020. Plastic synthetic alternatives that look like leather but are not leather have taken significant market-share away from the material in consumer product areas such as footwear and automobile upholstery. The situation is so dire that some lower-quality hides and skins are being composted and destroyed rather than processed into leather, a trend that will continue in 2020.”
Hide supplies are likely to stay high in the US. LHCA said an expansion of the US cattle herd, which began in 2014, appears to have levelled off. However, it said it expects slaughter levels to slow only slightly in the first half of 2020.
