Paris (AFP)

From animal husbandry to skin tanning, the French leather industry aims to reduce its environmental impact, but much remains to be done in terms of traceability of raw materials, and so-called "vegetable" solutions also have their limits.

Monday was held in Paris the very first international forum dedicated to the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of leather and its "good practices", organized by the National Council of Leather in the presence of some 200 professionals, French and foreigners.

"In recent years, our companies are often questioned in terms of sustainable development," said Franck Boehly, president of the National Council of Leather which brings together a sector of 130,000 employees in France.

"But our industry is the oldest recycling business in the world: we are transforming the skin, which is a by-product of the meat and milk sector, into a high quality leather because nobody in the world has never raised a cow for his skin, "he insisted.

In France, a total of 7 million tonnes of "finished" leather are produced each year by tanners (who process calfskins, cows, bulls) and megadores (goats, sheep, lambs).

While the fashion industry as a whole is considered one of the most polluting in the world, the leather industry also suffers from a bad image, between deforestation caused by intensive livestock farming, high consumption of water and use of chromium to soften the skins.

But in recent years, French legislation and European directives have become more restrictive for the profession, for example in the discharge of hazardous materials into the water. At the same time, luxury homes have imposed on their suppliers certifications with more demanding environmental criteria.

"CSR, for a long time, was an option.Today it is an obligation.We feel an acceleration for two or three years, under pressure from customers, societal pressure, and the pressure of regulation", sums up Jean-Christophe Muller, general manager of the Haas tanneries, which supply the largest French luxury groups.

- Traceability, weak link -

There is however a gray area: the traceability of livestock, the place of birth of the animal, but also the conditions under which it was raised, fed and then slaughtered, information issued in a variable manner depending on the country of origin.

"Customers are increasingly asking where their skins come from," says Nicholas Butler, Global Business Manager at Covico, a French skin trading company.

"Traceability is an indispensable insurance tool for customers," adds David Grangeré, industrial director of Bigard, the French leader in meat slaughtering employing some 12,000 people.

It highlights "the system of identification and traceability of cattle in France, which is recognized as one of the most successful: there is a national database, a record that follows the birth of the cattle, thanks to two earrings ".

But the Hexagon, despite the existence of a large livestock, had to import last year some 43 million euros of skins and raw hides of cattle, calves and sheep. In particular, the decline in meat consumption in France, which reduces the available volumes of quality skins, and pushes up prices.

Fish leather or "smart" materials, France is simultaneously multiplying innovations to diversify the sector, even if it is complex to move to "all natural".

"Our ancestors the Gauls were already tanning the skins with vegetable, and we use for three generations, in our small SME of the Tarn, natural tannins like qubracho (a tree of South America), mimosa or chestnut", explains Olivier Raynaud, manager of tannery Raynaud Jeune.

But he concedes that "the natural tanning has its limits, we can not refine the leather as much as with the chromium, and it has no resistance to the light, it is not the panacea either".

© 2019 AFP