Talking points

ACCORDING TO Gustavo Gonzalez Quijano, secretary general of Cotance, the EU Commission are preparing a policy document for leather. 'Oh no', I cry. More misinformed civil servants who know nothing about leather or its constituents making ill-judged decisions which will have immediate and serious impact on the chemical supplying industry and the tanner. In the spirit of first the bad news and then the even worse news, this time the circumstances are potentially little short of catastrophic. Why? Because they are basing their working premise on a mission statement submitted by the Greenpeace organisation. A statement, moreover, which the EU believe to be eminently sensible. Another current area of misleading information bouncing around the industry is that generated by PETA who are at pains to constantly point out the growing number of companies that they have persuaded to stop using leather from India. Their latest claims concern Reebok and Nike but both of these companies deny that they have ever sourced leather or leather products from India for their international operations. Another claim has been for the German tanning group Bader who supply automotive upholstery leather to BMW. And it is true, Bader can assure them wholeheartedly that they will never source hides from India. The reverse side of the coin is that they never have sourced hides from India which makes a mockery of the PETA claim. While PETA continue to bemuse and amuse the industry with their absurdities, it is no laughing matter for India who are suffering great damage to their industry as a result of the PETA inspired boycott of their leather. The biggest irony is that it will be China which gains orders at their expense. They are India's biggest competitor. They have just been accepted into the WTO. And not only do they have a very poor record for human rights, they have also been named by PETA as abusers of animals. Despite this, the main PETA campaign seems to be firmly aimed at India. As India continues to point out, their leather industry is not in any way involved in either the transport or slaughter of animals. In India, cows are not raised for meat as elsewhere in the world and they are only slaughtered after they are considered to have outlived their productive life. Barely 10% of the raw material consumed by the leather industry in India is cow hide and half of these have died from natural causes. The 90% balance is accounted for by goat, sheep and buffalo where the issue of inhumane treatment during transport is not significant. The matter of transportation has become an issue because only two states in India allow the slaughter of cows and only then when they are over twelve years old. Therefore, the situation is compounded by socio-religious issues and complex cow slaughter legislation. Conversely, the slaughter of goat, sheep and buffalo is allowed throughout the country. One exhibitor at Tanning Tech told me that he hoped that the current hard times affecting the industry would force many more tanneries out of business because the huge amount of overcapacity was actually damaging the sector. It is true that in an ideal world, all beamhouses would have proper effluent facilities and all would run at full capacity. Less efficient ones would close. With this scenario, fewer chemicals would be wasted and the environment would benefit hugely. The consensus was that attendance at both Tanning Tech and Lineapelle was down but that it was the time wasters who stayed away. Those who bothered to turn up had serious business intentions. Also, the best guide to tannery production is to take a look at the chemicals sector and at Tanning Tech their hall was busy throughout the show.