Brugnoli presented data from the Social and Environmental report which was collected from seven Cotance member countries, Italy, Spain, Germany, Romania, UK, Sweden and France which represent 71% of the total turnover of leather made in Cotance member countries.
The final report and data will be finialised and released later in the Autumn. The report showed that the tanning industry has contracted in both volume and value between 2002-09, however, since the crisis of 2008-09 the industry has started to recover slightly between 2009-11.
The total turnover of the European tanning industry is estimated to be €7.75 billion and around 40,000 businesses are directly and indirectly employing people in the European leather and leaher product industries. “When you add in all the tanners, gloving, auto, furniture, footwear, avaiation, nautical, saddlery, leather goods and garment makers that use leather we estimate that around one million people are employed in the European leather industry”, said Gonzalez-Quijano.
The presentation of SER III formed part of the 4th ICAMS (International Conference for Advanced Materials and Systems) conference which took place September 27-29. The event was organised by the Romanian National Research & Development Institute for Textile and Leather (INCDTP), and The Romanian Leather and Footwear Research Institute (ICPI).
