According to the National Leather Council (CNC), French tanneries and mega-factories have experienced a 12% drop in their exports, to 295.9 million euros in 2019. While imports remained stable at 482.4 million euros, Italy was the main player in this international competition.
According to the French National Leather Council (CNC), French tanneries and mega-factories have seen their exports fall by 12% to 295.9 million euros in 2019. Imports remained stable at 482.4 million euros, with Italy representing the main player in this international competition.
Transalpine neighbours who are also France’s leading customers in this area, but whose orders have collapsed in 2019 by 21%, a figure that has increased since the start of the health crisis. The French tannery and mega tannery industry is currently made up of 45 industrial companies (and 10 merchant brokers), compared to 1,300 in the 1960s. It is in the name of these semi-artisanal companies that work, produce on French territory, and also act in favour of sustainable luxury, that we met Jérôme Verdier, president of the tannery and megisserie federation.
What are the difficulties encountered today by the tannery-mégissiers, these professionals who operate upstream in the French leather industry?
First of all, I would like to point out that the voice commonly heard by French tanners-makers is that of a very small number of craftsmen who have survived a massive relocation that took place mainly between 1970 and 2010. And these craftsmen exercise a rare know-how for which they have been obliged to fully integrate the regulatory aspect of ecology which is very strict and constraining on our territory.
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Featured photo : Jérôme Verdier © Presse
