The latest edition of our Market Intelligence newsletter went live on September 24, offering reflections on the Lineapelle exhibition, which took place in Milan last week.

For the first time in many years, our industry insider says, a visit to the exhibition failed to lift the mood.

According to the report, available in full here, exhibitors commented on the absence of people who have been regular visitors to the event in the recent past. It adds that many exhibiting companies also showed a reluctance to put genuinely new product ideas on show and concludes that this, too, may be an indication of a lack of optimism.

There are indirect factors that are contributing to this, without doubt, and Market Intelligence singles out the imminent European Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) as being “at the forefront” of this.

There were small, niche suppliers who were satisfied because their business is stable and orders continue to come in. But the overall situation is that too much raw material is being pushed onto a market in which there is too little demand for leather.