Of all the unwelcome effects of the current SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) crisis on the international leather trade, the most visible so far has been the cancellation of the giant Asia Pacific Leather Fair in mid-March.

It was certainly not unexpected, as by the time the decision was made, “Will APLF be able to go ahead?” had become part of everyday conversation among leather industry professionals. It was also not without precedent as the Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament had already seen some teams refusing to travel while aging rock star Mick Jagger pulled out of his engagement to perform on the island.

By this time, APLF’s organisers, CMP Asia, were being called on a more than regular basis, while the people responsible for organising national pavilions were telling APLF that their members were questioning the wisdom of travelling to the show.

 “We were monitoring the situation on an hour by hour basis,” says Michael Duck, senior vice president of CMP Asia. “We had to rely on information available to us from the Hong Kong health authorities and WHO and this told us that although the risk of infection was small and cases rarely fatal, the only responsible thing to do was to postpone the show until late June.”

In the days that followed, WHO gave out more specific warnings about the dangers of SARS. The task facing Duck and his team was enormous and, without the benefit of e-mails, it is unlikely that they would have succeeded as well as they did in letting the industry worldwide know of the change in plans. Using e-mail and fax, 3,179 exhibitors were contacted on the last Friday of March. With APLF’s vast database, thousands of potential and preregistered visitors were informed. The decision and the new dates were welcomed and supported by various tanners’ associations including those in Italy, Spain, Germany, USA, India, Pakistan, Australia and France.

By late April, however, SARS continued to make its presence felt across the world, with people falling ill in some 25 countries, though it is to be noted that, compared with typical pneumonia, which affects 12 out of every 1,000 of the population in the Northern hemisphere and which has an overall mortality rate of 13.8% (2002), rates of infection remained relatively low.

The Chinese government had confessed that it had not been open or honest about the disease which had started in that country months earlier. The Hong Kong administration has also had to increase its public health programme in its attempt to stem the tide of patients and deaths. But health professionals are indicating that it will be another year or two before a vaccine or treatment will be developed. In March, the estimated impact on Hong Kong’s economy was a 0.7% reduction in GDP for the year. Four weeks later, and with no lessening of the SARS impact to be seen, economists are not so sure. As this issue goes to press, APLF Raw Materials is still scheduled for June 26-28.

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