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The Leather Traceability Cluster is nearing completion on the standard on essential requirements for leather traceability
What COTANCE called for back in 2022 when the EU adopted the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) will soon be a reality! All the key organisations with private leather standards are reaching an agreement on the essential requirements and means of verification for the tracing of leather back to its origin. This pioneering milestone is the result of a fruitful cooperation where Quality Certification Institute for the Leather Sector (ICEC), Leather Working Group (LWG), OEKO-TEX® and Sustainable Leather Foundation (SLF) are developing a common standard that creates the alignment of traceability requirements for the sector allowing mutual recognition of traceability assessments without the need of repeat inspection and related additional unproductive costs.
Traceability of leather back to the place of birth of cattle, sheep or goats whose hide/skin constitute the input material of the tanning process, and transparency in the supply chain have become a must in the EU leather market, as legislation and customers require supply chains to provide information to consumers on how, by whom, and where products are made. Animal welfare, deforestation, child or forced labour, etc. are some of the ethical considerations that lay behind this growing trend. Yet, traceability constitutes a particular challenge for the leather industry, as hides and skins obtain their identity separate from the animal at the slaughterhouse, and, as by-products, information on the previous lifecycle is lost in the vast majority of cases around the globe.
The Leather Traceability Cluster was launched by COTANCE in September 2022 at Lineapelle, inviting organisations with private leather standards to join and cooperate in this initiative to develop the essential requirements for leather traceability. The call was answered by ICEC, LWG, OEKO-TEX® and SLF who agreed to establish, on a pre-competitive basis, the minimum essential elements of leather traceability systems to be verified by certification schemes of equivalent informative value. These elements are to be submitted to official standardisation so as to be mutually recognised and referenced by regulators. The common standard will list the minimum essential elements of traceability, and the corresponding evidence of verification that should be present in a reliable traceability system. This includes three compliance levels; the first applies to all types of leather, the second supports the cattle supply chain compliance to the EUDR, and the third attaches additional sustainability performance requirements.
The success of the COTANCE initiative quickly triggered the interest of CEN Standardisation experts, NGOs, industry associations and other stakeholders having all signed the Terms of Reference that guide the activities of the LEATHER TRACEABILITY CLUSTER (LTC) alliance.
The common agreement on the essential traceability requirements that is being developed by ICEC, LWG, OEKO-TEX® and SLF will be reviewed and endorsed by the wider Leather Traceability Cluster during the last quarter of 2024, after which it will be submitted for the fast-track CEN standardisation process.
18/09/2024
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