Our latest issue of Leatherbiz Market Intelligence went live on the website on November 15.
It says there is now greater clarity about the direction the leather pipeline is heading in, but, unfortunately, the picture that is emerging is not encouraging.

Retail group Marks & Spencer warned recently of a “gathering storm” for consumer-facing businesses.

Leather commands a lower value-add than it should and animus against the material, especially in Europe, makes this unlikely to change in the short term, the report says.

There is an acceptance of the possibility that not everyone will agree with this assessment, but the Market Intelligence report insists that no one could argue with its assertion that “demand for leather for use in mass-manufactured consumer products has not increased in recent weeks”.

It points to global consumption being “considerably burdened” by inflation and says this particularly affects “goods that are not part of basic needs”. Another factor is that the pandemic policy in China is also putting a strain on global sales because China is “such a large and important consumer market”.

The upshot is a decline of between 10% and 20% in sales of leather “is probably not too far from the truth”, it concludes.