ECONOMY
by Hélio Mendes & Luiz Bittencourt
Hélio Mendes 
Luiz Bittencourt
The Destructive Environmental Lie
For decades the international tanner industry doesn’t face such devastating crisis.
This unfortunate story begins with the elevation of competitional levels reached by alternative materials that invested in R&D, which developed technologically, and today harvest unprecedented results.
There is an articulated confluence of actors promoting a stunning coalition of attitudes that is tormenting and defying leather processing enterprises, forcing them to be resilient and to respond strongly to the aggressive and groundless behaviors which are creating and feeding the astral hell that torments the sector.
This economic struggle escalated and, even being annoying, it urged the tanner industry to commercial confrontation. It’s tough, but stimulating.
What is causing this uncontrolled instability to the leather business are the actions orchestrated by environmentalists who, without ecological basis and united under an imaginary cause, insist on relating the production of leather to slaughter, to global warming and to deforestation.
We are facing a false interpretation, repeated to exhaustion, that influenced negatively consumer’s comprehension about leather supplying.
If wasn’t an essential distort, this aggression would only touch the commercial activity, but the action is currently aiming on the product’s image itself, disfiguring it in the consumer’s mind.
Convinced about their decision, buyers don’t hesitate about giving up on leather and choosing the alternative materials. As a result, leather’s participation in the international market doesn’t depend anymore on its own competitional capabilities, and got casted away from the main circuit. Besides, leather has been limited, for instance, to consumers who doesn’t care about ecological matters, or to the high luxury market, which still wish for the glamour that only leather can provide.
The finding of this new and painful scenario, if on one hand can be embarrassing (and kind of discouraging), on another hand can be used to reconquer the market, beginning with making consumers aware about the true relevant contribution of leather to environmental development, spreading this information to exhaustion and aiming for the end of the product chain, not only focusing on the extraordinary recycling component, which was historically incorporated to its processing, but also focusing on the false premise used by environment activists. The buyers don’t know (because they were not informed) that leather is scientifically recognized as a solution for environmental control.
This tenebrous phase can be temporary if potential leather consumers are conveniently warned about leather’s true positive characteristics and its incomparable attributes. However, the damage already has been done. What remains is to count the losses and to face the attacks accordingly.
Just listening false accusations without answering it and orienting the consumers it’s an unjustifiable omission, which won’t help in any way the sector’s recovery.
Hélio Mendes – Government and Business Consultant – www.institutolatino.com
Luiz Bittencourt – Metallurgical Engineer, UFF/RJ/Brazil; Master of Engineering, McGill University/Montreal/Canada; Postgraduate in International Trade/UniversidadeMackenzie/SP/Brazil – [email protected]
www.revistadiaria.com.br
