Leather Industry Urges Airlines to Ensure Traceability

Scottish leather supplier Muirhead is urging airlines to ensure the traceability of leather during procurement. The advice follows the emergence of leather suppliers whose products – despite being marketed as sustainable, ethical and European – come from a complex and blurred supply chain, with hides imported from as far as South America.

According to Muirhead, it has developed a unique circular process for leather manufacture and sources 99% of its hides from trusted farmers in the UK and Ireland. This enables the supplier to leverage the region’s exceptionally high animal welfare standards, keep hide miles to a minimum and ensure Muirhead leather does not contribute to forest depletion.

To ensure 100% traceability, Muirhead relies on the government-backed Cattle Tracing System, which operates in tandem with the Cattle Passport. Upon processing a hide, the licensed abattoir issues a commercial document which is given a unique ID number. This stays with the hide throughout the entire leather manufacturing process.

Gareth Scott, Hide Procurement and By-Product Sales Director at Muirhead said: ‘operators are facing mounting pressure to take responsibility for their supply chains and demonstrate the full environmental and social impact of the materials they use.

‘While leather is a natural by-product of the food industry, the finished product can only be considered sustainable if produced sustainably and ethically. The lack of industry-wide traceability standards poses significant challenges for operators around environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting.

‘We believe radical traceability is the cornerstone of ethical leather production. That is why we encourage operators to ascertain that their leather suppliers can track every aspect of the product’s manufacture and distribution, from the cradle to the grave.’

https://www.leatherworkinggroup.com/fileadmin/uploads/lwg/Images/LWG_Traceability_Roadmap_.pdf