UK leather industry report shows improvements
Industry body Leather UK has released its UK Leather & Leather Goods Industry report for 2022.
In general, 2022 saw improvements on the previous year, with the total value of exports up by almost 15%. Volumes of finished leather exports saw a 12.72% increase with values up by 41.02%, in spite of a backdrop of lower values and volumes for part-processed leathers and raw materials.
Similar trends were seen with imports at £146.92 million, up 17.69% on the previous year. There was, however, a significant fall in raw material imports, seen primarily with bovine hides, where value and volume fell 70.73% and 55.6%, respectively.
It was noted that these trends followed global movements, with the positivity of the first quarter “eclipsed by the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine” and as such “what could have been a good year for the industry was somewhat derailed by global events”
image: Thomas Ware and Sons Ltd
