Leather authenticity is at the top of the agenda in Portugal, according to the Associação Portuguesa de Industriais de Curtumes (APIC – Leather from Portugal).
Being the latest country in the European Union to have achieved a “leather law”, by the publication of the Law Decree n. 3 of year 2022 in Portugal, the promoter of this law, the Portuguese Tanners Association – APIC – is now taking advantage of this essential instrument.
In 2023, APIC together with CTIC – the Portuguese Leather Technology Centre – promoted a presential training for 23 inspectors of ASAE* to be acquainted with the leather authenticity subject and with the law.
This training session was the first step for a market inspection carried by ASAE that resulted in detention of products not in compliance with the law in a total of six economic operators.
Although APIC considers essential to engage in market inspection actions, the association is also monitoring the market with its available means and has approached 16 different economic operators over the last year.
APIC uses a pedagogic approach, inviting the infringing economic operators to correct the contents which are in violation of the leather law and also inviting them to know more about leather as a material, enhancing the properties of leather as well as its sustainability features.
An important vector of this strategy is to reach the final consumers and, to do so, APIC arranged a meeting with the Portuguese Consumers Association – DECO** – to promote leather authenticity all over Portugal.
After an extensive presentation on leather authenticity by Gonçalo Santos of APIC, there was a very positive response by Ana Tapadinhas, General Manager of DECO, who was surprised by the potential of leather for sustainability.
DECO will promote a leather authenticity promotion campaign in the second semester of 2025 in Portugal.
*ASAE is responsible for the discipline of the economic activities in the food and non-food sectors, by monitoring and preventing the enforcement of regulation legislation. ASAE is a national authority, with administrative autonomy, that acts as a police and law enforcement body, being the national liaison body with its counterpart organisations at the European and international levels.
**DECO is the Portuguese Association for Consumer Protection, a private non-profit association of public utility that has its headquarters in Lisbon and is represented throughout the national territory by seven regional structures: Minho, North, Center, Ribatejo and West, Alentejo, Algarve and Madeira. DECO was founded in 1974 and already has more than 370,000 members, being the main reference in Portugal in the defense of consumer rights.
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