Industry representative body COTANCE has said the preparatory work for launching a new Leather Traceability Cluster is almost complete. By Leatherbiz.

It explained that a number of organisations that focus on standards for leather production had been working together on traceability. COTANCE said they had been working to agree on “the essential requirements and means of verification” for tracing leather back to its origin.

Organisations that have formed the Leather Traceability Cluster are the Quality Certification Institute for the Leather Sector (ICEC), the Leather Working Group (LWG), Oeko-Tex and the Sustainable Leather Foundation (SLF).

They are developing a common standard for traceability requirements for the sector. This will mean mutual recognition of traceability assessments without the need for repeat inspections and related additional costs.

Traceability of leather back to the place of birth of cattle, sheep or goats whose hides and skins constitute the input material for the tanning process. COTANCE said transparency in the supply chain has become a must in the European leather market, as legislation and customers require information on how, by whom and where products are made.

Animal welfare, deforestation, and child or forced labour are some of the ethical considerations that lie behind this growing trend.
The organisation went on to explain that traceability constitutes a particular challenge for the leather industry. “Hides and skins obtain an identity separate from that of the animal at the slaughterhouse,” COTANCE said, “and, as by-products, information on the previous lifecycle of the hides and skins is lost in the vast majority of cases around the globe.”

It said the common agreement on traceability requirements will be reviewed and endorsed during the last quarter of 2024, after which it will be submitted for fast-track acceptance by CEN, the European Committee for Standardisation.