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<\/p>\nThe international forum focuses on competitiveness, traceability, regulation, innovation, and communication as key factors for the future of the European leather industry.<\/p>\n
On September 7, Leather Cluster Barcelona participated in the Sustainable Leather Forum 2026, held in Paris. The event brought together companies, brands, industry associations, institutions, innovation centers, and professionals from various countries to share experiences, projects, and perspectives on the major challenges currently facing the leather industry.<\/p>\n
The cluster’s participation provided an opportunity to gain firsthand insight into the trends redefining the sector, identify new avenues for collaboration, and strengthen connections with other international stakeholders across the value chain.<\/p>\n
One of the day’s key messages was particularly clear: sustainability can no longer be addressed in isolation from competitiveness. Geopolitics, access to raw materials, European regulations, traceability, technological innovation, and shifting demand patterns are increasingly interconnected and will shape the leather industry’s positioning in the coming years.<\/p>\n
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Europe: Quality and Know-How, but Also New Challenges<\/p>\n
The forum highlighted the European industry’s core assets: quality, know-how, reputation, craftsmanship, and the ability to position itself within premium and luxury market segments. At the same time, it was noted that these advantages cannot be taken for granted in a global market where other regions are making rapid strides in efficiency, technology, certifications, and environmental performance.<\/p>\n
This reality compels the European sector to continue evolving and to combine its traditional strengths with greater innovation, data utilization, traceability, and the ability to differentiate itself.<\/p>\n
The Major Challenge: Maintaining Demand for Leather<\/p>\n
One of the most significant insights from the Sustainable Leather Forum was that the primary future challenge is not merely access to hides and skins, but rather maintaining leather’s market share within the global materials market. The event highlighted that a significant portion of hides generated globally no longer enters the leather production process. This shifts the nature of the debate: the issue is not merely how to secure raw materials, but also why certain sectors are using less leather and how its desirability vis-\u00e0-vis other materials can be bolstered.<\/p>\n
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In this regard, the sector must continue to better articulate the qualities that set leather apart: its durability, repairability, natural origins, potential for circularity, and its role in adding value to an existing animal by-product. The forum identified communication as one of the major challenges still facing the industry.<\/p>\n
Traceability: moving from declaration to demonstration<\/p>\n
Traceability was another key theme of the forum. The sector is evolving from systems based primarily on documentation toward models that increasingly prioritize independent verification of material origins and supply chain-related claims.<\/p>\n
A case study presented by ORITAIN demonstrated how scientific analysis can complement digital systems, certifications, and traditional documentation, thereby strengthening companies’ ability to prove the geographical origin of their materials. For European manufacturers operating in premium, highly regulated markets, the ability to substantiate claims will become just as important as the ability to make them.<\/p>\n
Regulation and competitiveness<\/p>\n
European regulation also featured prominently in the sessions. The discussion centered on whether an increasingly stringent regulatory framework represents merely a cost for European companies or whether, if managed effectively, it can serve as a point of differentiation.<\/p>\n
The forum highlighted that regulatory compliance, traceability, and verified environmental performance can become competitive advantages when these factors are adopted as purchasing requirements by brands and customers. At the same time, the need for regulations to be grounded in scientific evidence\u2014and for imported products to be subject to equivalent standards\u2014was underscored. Circularity and new sources of value<\/p>\n
Circularity was also addressed from a business perspective. Not all hides possess the quality required to be processed into leather. In such cases, the development of classification and valorization systems allows these materials to be directed toward other applications\u2014such as gelatin, proteins, fertilizers, or other industrial uses. This diversification opens up new opportunities for business and industrial symbiosis, with a clear objective: maximizing the value of by-products<\/p>\n
…materials and preventing them from ending up as waste.<\/p>\n
Collaboration: An Essential Prerequisite<\/p>\n
Another key theme running through the Sustainable Leather Forum was the need for collaboration. Challenges such as water management, chemical innovation, traceability, digitalization, circularity, and communication can hardly be tackled in isolation. Transforming the sector requires closer cooperation among tanneries, technology providers, research centers, brands, educational institutions, public authorities, and industry organizations.<\/p>\n
This message aligns directly with Leather Cluster Barcelona\u2019s role as a hub connecting companies, knowledge, technology, and collaborative projects.<\/p>\n
Applying Lessons Learned to the Leather Cluster Barcelona Ecosystem<\/p>\n
For Leather Cluster Barcelona, \u200b\u200bmany of the conclusions shared in Paris reinforce workstreams already central to the cluster’s strategy: supporting innovation and research, increasing cooperation between companies and knowledge centers, strengthening training, advancing traceability and circularity, and improving how the sector communicates the value of leather.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, the Sustainable Leather Forum 2026 showcased an industry undergoing profound transformation but also possessing significant, distinctive assets. The challenge for the coming years will be to combine traditional know-how with science, technology, traceability, communication, and collaboration. The future of leather will depend not only on producing a better product but also on effectively demonstrating its value, verifying its performance, and working collectively to build the next generation of the industry.<\/p>\n
Leather Cluster Barcelona fosters an environment of competitive cooperation to promote strategic, cross-cutting, and transformative projects aimed at boosting the leather sector ecosystem within the framework of Shared Value policies. The cluster is an accredited entity under the Catalonia Clusters program and is supported by ACCI\u00d3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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