Facing stringent environment laws and a slowdown, the US leather developers are turning to India to outsource the tanning process.

A three-member delegation led by the Vice-Chairman of US Hide and Skin Leather Association, Kelly Meine, is at present on a visit to all the three major leather centres of the country — Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

Sources in the leather industry say the environment laws are stringent in the Europe and the US and hence many companies are outsourcing the most polluting part of leather production process to Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia. The industry calculations state that the cost of compliance with environmental regulations is about 5 per cent of the total production cost.

In India, though the regulations are on par with other countries, the stress is basically on water pollution, not air pollution and solid waste management. Effluent treatment plants in India rarely comply with the norms.

“We are looking for a competitive market,” said Meine. After visiting the leather industries in Chennai, Kanpur and Unnao, the delegation is now on its way to Kolkata. “This is my second visit to India,” says Meine, who is doing business with India for over four years under the banner of his organisation, Union Hide Company.

According to Meine, 35 million cattle are slaughtered in the US every year, of which hide of only 30 per cent is tanned. The rest is exported to other countries as raw material. For over five years, hides are being exported to China, which has recently started producing synthetic leather, which is not commonly accepted in saddlery products.

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