Leather Traceability Cluster nears completion on the standard on essential requirements for leather traceability

During the Lineapelle Fair in Milan, it was announced by Cotance that all the key organisations 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 an industry collaboration 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.

The Leather Traceability Cluster was launched by COTANCE in September 2022 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 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 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.