ICHSLTA president re-elected
The International Council of Hides, Skins, and Leather Traders Associations (ICHSLTA) held its 94th annual general meeting during the recent All China Leather Exhibition in Shanghai.
Members reviewed the trade of hides and skins globally and discussed the misuse of the word leather to describe non-animal sourced materials.
Also at the meeting, members re-elected Toni Baltes, managing director of A+B Hides and head of the German hides association, Wirtschaftsverband Häute Leder (WHL), as ICHSLTA president for a second term. He was first elected to the position in 2021.
He explained that one of ICHSLTA’s objectives during his new two-year tenure as president will be to support efforts to restore “the good reputation leather deserves” as a natural, sustainable and beautiful material that manufacturers of a wide array of finished products can use.
Mr Baltes said this in the context of end consumers now demanding “more ethical, sustainable consumption choices”, but also being at risk of being taken in by unsubstantiated claims that synthetic materials will meet those requirements more fully than leather.
He will have the support of two vice-presidents: Dennis King from the Australian Hides Skins and Leather Exporters Association, and Nick Winters from the French Hides Association, while Lénaïg Manéat, also of the French Hides Association, will continue to manage ICHSLTA.
