ICHSLTA names new president
At its 92nd annual general meeting, the International Council of Hides, Skins, and Leather Traders Association (ICHSLTA) elected Toni Baltes as its new president.
Mr Baltes is the managing director of A+B Hides and president of the German hides association, Wirtschaftsverband Häute Leder (WHL). Based in Geldern, close to the border with the Netherlands, A+B Hides formed in 2006, when Franz Aengenheyster EK and Häutehandelsgesellschaft Toni Baltes merged.
The new ICHSLTA president is Toni Baltes junior; his father, also Toni, was a master butcher, who set up in the hides business in 1952. In 2018, A+B Hides became part of the OSI food group.
On taking up the presidency of ICHSLTA, Mr Baltes said that it was for each person to decide whether or not they want to eat meat. But he said that, as long as people do decide to eat meat and have available to them meat that becomes available as a result of human slaughter, it is important to use the by-products from that process in the best way we can.
“It is an ethical principle,” Mr Baltes said. “It is the basis of our work to be part of the value chain from the raw hide to a beautiful leather product. In my new role as ICHSLTA’s president, I will continue to be committed to this.”
Dennis King from the Australian Hides Skins and Leather Exporters Association and Nick Winters from the French Hides Association will be ICHSLTA vice-presidents. Lénaïg Manéat of the the French Hides Association will continue to manage the organisation’s secretariat.
ICHSLTA represents the interests of the hide, skins and leather trade in more than 30 countries. Founded in 1929, its principal objective is the promotion, development and protection of the international trade in raw hides, skins and leathers.
