France has registered double-digit increases in the value of imports of calfskins and calfskin leather. These increases have coincided with a sharp fall in the availability of domestic calfskins. By Leatherbiz.

New data that Alliance France Cuir has shared shows that between January and November 2024, France imported calfskins with a value of €6.4 million, up by 31% year on year.

Over the same period, calfskin leather with a value of €118.1 million came into the country, an increase of 10% compared to the same months in 2023.

In the report, Alliance France Cuir says exports of calfskins were worth €42.1 million in the first 11 months of 2024, down by 3%. Exports of calfskin leather over the same period were worth €35.4 million, a fall of 7% year on year.

An article in the new issue of World Leather examines in more detail constraints in the supply of calfskin in France. It quotes past-president of the International Council of Hides, Skins, and Leather Traders Associations (ICHSLTA), Nick Winters, as saying that the annual volume of calfskins coming onto the market in France has fallen by around 600,000 pieces in the last ten years.

His conclusion is that “the luxury industry is going to have to look for alternative materials”.