PrimeAsia launches Augmented Sourcing Policy aimed at achieving 100% traceability back to farms of birth for leathers sourced from South America by 2030.

The document covers other multiple aspects of leather origin and production including climate change, labor conditions, chemical management and animal welfare.

The policy was reviewed with the support of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) as part of a collaboration initiated in 2021 to enhance and strengthen PrimeAsia’s initiatives in building a sustainable and ethical supply chain.

While under its current practices, all wet blue leather sourced by PrimeAsia is physically stamped and traceable back to the slaughterhouse and its direct suppliers, the new policy will be an important tool in further engaging the upstream supply chain, promoting more transparency and traceability back to the farms of birth.

In addition to reviewing the policy, WWF will assist PrimeAsia’s in communicating it to its supply chain, sharing its expertise and engaging with suppliers in developing and implementing robust, data-driven and transparent systems.

“Through our global network, multi commodity, and supply chains experience we will support PrimeAsia on the exciting journey towards environmentally friendly and ethical supply chains,” said Karla Canavan, Vice President, Commodity, Trade and Finance, Markets, WWF-US.

The policy also brings specific requirements for areas of higher deforestation risk such as the Amazon and Chaco biomes in South America.

“While we believe it is important to set high standards to our entire global supply chain, the new policy goes further, setting additional steps to address the most pressing issues linked to leather supply chains. By taking these measures, we believe that not only we can avoid environmental degradation in high-risk areas, we can also promote positive engagements that will lead to more sustainable development,” explained Ian Scher, PrimeAsia’s Vice President for Procurement.

In 2019 PrimeAsia launched its Responsibly Raised Initiative intended to collaborate with stakeholders in the supply chain, all the way to farm level, to promote the responsible use and conservation of natural resources, fair labor conditions and sound animal welfare.

“The new policy and collaboration with WWF are two important steps towards PrimeAsia’s ambition to make 100% of our supply chain part of our Responsibly Raised Initiative. We have learned that collaboration and engagement are key ingredients in building supply chain approaches to stimulate land stewardship practices that will result in the responsible use and conservation of natural resources.” commented Jon Clark, PrimeAsia’s CEO.