The Leather Lobby Could Change the Fate of the Fashion Industry
Leather lobbyists are pushing for the EU to exclude leather from its deforestation regulation, with serious implications for fashion supply chains.
Reported by Vogue.
A regulatory deadline you've probably never heard of is quietly threatening to determine whether the leather in your next handbag or coat was sourced from land ripped out of the Amazon. On June 1, EU regulators will vote on whether to remove leather from the European Commission's Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) — landmark legislation designed to ensure products sold across the bloc don't contribute to deforestation. According to Vogue, intense lobbying from global leather industry groups has already succeeded in getting hides, skins, and leather stripped from an updated draft proposal. Activists, ranchers, and policy experts are now sounding the alarm.
The EUDR originally required cattle-derived materials — leather included — to be traceable to farm level before entering the EU market. That's a serious ask in a system like Brazil's, where animals typically move between farms three times before slaughter across a web of monitored and unmonitored suppliers. The compliance costs are real: an estimated €16.7 million annually for the leather industry. But the environmental payoff dwarfs that figure — projected at €979 million to €1.96 billion per year in benefits. The math isn't subtle. The leather lobby, however, has leaned hard on a familiar argument: that leather is merely a byproduct of meat and dairy and therefore shouldn't bear responsibility for deforestation. Experts push back hard on that framing. Cowhides alone represented a third of all cattle products Brazil exported to the EU in 2024, worth roughly €240 million. Calling that a byproduct is a financial fiction.
The Stakes on the Ground
In Pará — the Amazonian state that has lost 13 million hectares of rainforest since 2002 — small-holder farmer Maria Gorete Rios became the first rancher in the region to electronically tag her entire herd, creating a verifiable digital trail proving her cattle weren't raised on deforested land. She's part of a state-wide traceability initiative aiming to track 26 million cattle by 2030. Her concern about leather's potential exclusion from the EUDR is direct: "People only do things the right way when it is mandatory and when it affects their pockets." Meanwhile, cattle pastures already account for an estimated 80% of deforested Amazon land — and scientists warn the entire ecosystem may be nearing a collapse point.
Environmental law organization Client Earth has launched an open letter urging fashion brands to publicly support leather's inclusion in the EUDR before the June 1 deadline. Their message to sustainability teams is pointed: silence is being read as agreement with the lobbyists. "Do we want deforestation-free leather or not?" says Michael Rice, value chains lead at Client Earth. "If that matters to the brand and their consumers, then this is the best opportunity for them to have a say." A 2025 report by Collective Fashion Justice found that leather groups spent over €1 million annually and employed 27 lobbyists to influence EU law — and by most indications, the strategy is working. The EU already delayed the law by a year in 2024. Advocates say capitulating to industry pressure now would set a damaging precedent for every piece of fashion-focused sustainability legislation that follows.
If brands have spent years quietly building deforestation-free sourcing policies, this is the moment to say so out loud — because a regulation gutted by lobbying is only as strong as the industry's willingness to demand better.
Read the original at Vogue.
