Kim Sena is sustainability manager at JBS Couros, working on eco-efficient solutions for the leather industry, from process optimization, to the evaluation of mechanisms that minimize the use of natural resources. In the past, Kim was one of those responsible for creating Kind Leather and the JBS360 traceability platform. Check it out!
Scot Consultoria: Kim, could you comment a little on the phases of leather processing and what the main bottlenecks involving production are?
Kim Sena: The leather production process is particularly complex because it requires combining high standards of industrial production – ensuring standardization, quality and sustainability – with the sensitivity and art that make it so attractive. Therefore, producing it involves a series of steps, beginning with the prepping and stabilization of the hides, and ending with the guarantee of the softness, touch, color and shine of the finished article.
The first stages of the production process includes the liming which dehairs and preps the hide; tanning, which stabilizes the hide so that it doesn’t putrefy; retanning, which guarantees the leather’s structure and softness, defining its end-application (for example, for footwear, leather goods or upholstery); pre-finishing and finishing, which define the final peculiarities of each article, such as touch, color and shine.
Production can be affected by different bottlenecks, the most common being in batch processes that take place in large equipment called drums. Examples of these processes are soaking, liming, tanning and retanning. Thus, adjusted manufacturing planning is extremely important in the industrial production of leather, avoiding the drums from being idle.
Scot Consultoria: Regarding the leather market, what share of the international market does Brazil have and what are the biggest challenges to increasing this market share?
Kim Sena: With the world’s largest beef cattle herd, Brazil is among the four largest world producers of leather, along with China, Italy and India. We are in third place among exporters, trailing only Italy and USA. This is especially relevant because we export 80% of our production, of which 70% to the automotive and furniture industries.
We face several challenges, such as improving the quality of the raw materials (marks caused by ectoparasites or branding with hot iron), but also infrastructure, bureaucracy and taxes, which could make the industry more competitive. Additionally, we have the challenges of sustainability, and if we are to make additional progress with this agenda it is highly important that the industry as a whole focuses on traceability and environmental protection measures. JBS, for example, only purchases animals from breeders who fully comply with its socioenvironmental criteria, including not owning areas embargoed by IBAMA or being involved in hard labor, as well as zero tolerance of illegal deforestation. The cattle procurement operations of JBS are independently audited on an annual basis, with the audit results published on the Company’s site, guaranteeing the transparency of the entire process.
Sustainability has always been extremely important for JBS Couros and, undoubtedly, it is one of our key differential competitive advantages. In 2019, for example, we launched the sustainable leather, Kind Leather, whose production process is more efficient and innovative and provides to the industry and society a series of key environmental, social and economic benefits through the intelligent use of raw materials and resources, traceability, sustainable origin and eco-efficiency.
Scot Consultoria: What is currently the main barrier for Brazil to establish itself as a model country in exports of quality leather? Or should I say, is Brazil already considered a model country?
Kim Sena: Brazilian leather is already a world benchmark in several aspects. We are well-established and acknowledged globally for the high quality of the domestic industry and workforce, but we are also increasingly recognized for sophistication in design, extensive communication and the sustainability of our production.
Nevertheless, we have opportunities for improvement that could expand the preference for Brazilian leather. The Tannery Industry Center of Brazil (CICB) estimates annual losses of US$700 million due to the characteristics of the raw material, such as hot iron branding marks and ectoparasites.
Scot Consultoria: What effect did the pandemic have on the leather market in Brazil and globally?
Kim Sena: According to the CICB, the forecasts for 2020 predicted a year of stability, but the pandemic changed everything. Like the majority of manufacturing sectors, the first semester was hit especially hard, resulting in a total decline in exports at the close of the year of around 10% in relation to 2019. Given the industry’s main focus on upholstery, the impact on the industry in Brazil was lower than in those countries more dedicated to the luxury segments. However, the leather industry has shown itself to be absolutely necessary for an aspect of sustainability.
As it is a recycling industry in which material indirectly produced by the animal protein industry is reused to produce a long-lasting material, thus avoiding it ending up on landfills, production didn’t stop. So, domestic production capacity remained stable, maintaining specialized labor, which has left us ready for the post-pandemic recovery.
Scot Consultoria: What is the importance of traceability programs in Brazil’s participation international market share, from your point of view? Where does this traceability dynamic enter the domestic leather production chain?
Kim Sena: The question of the traceability of material production chains has been strengthened year after year, and there is certainly no turning back. In the search for the sustainability of their products, brands and consumers are asking for greater details about all links in the production chains of consumer goods.
In the case of leather, several issues stand out, such as the guarantee of animal well-being and environmental conservation. In Brazil’s case, brands are looking for the certainty that the leather they purchase from us has been properly traced and that it is committed to environmental preservation. That is why robust systems must be implemented to map the origin of the leather back to the farms. This is the case of the system we use, the JBS360.
By flagging the traceability identified in any leather, it is possible to identify the farms that originally provided the hides, in addition to all the assurances of our responsible raw material procurement policy and the Supplier Monitoring Protocol of the Federal Prosecution Office.
Scot Consultoria: Tell us about sustainability focused on leather production.
Kim Sena: The search for the sustainability of materials extrapolates the origin of the raw materials, but also aims to evaluate the environmental footprint that any given production chain leaves on the planet. The Life Cycle Assessment, or LCA, is no easy task because it covers a myriad of processes and phases inherent to the industrial transformation of a given material, but it is the appropriate quantitative methodology that makes it possible to make fair and harmonized comparisons between the various options available to the market.
It is an initiative that arose from academia and the scientific community, but which has been fully embraced by the major global companies to evaluate the sustainability of the different options of materials. This is an extremely technical, science-based task that leaves us very optimistic. Since we are dealing with material of renewable origin and extremely durable, provided it is processed according to the most ecologically correct manufacturing practices, the results obtained will certainly contribute to proving the sustainable characteristics of the material and, consequently, to the strengthening of the industry as a whole.
We recently submitted Kind Leather to a LCA, together with Asiatan. The results confirmed that the approach of introducing design remodeling concepts into the chain – taking on standards hitherto considered inherent to the production system – is the correct path for minimizing the industry’s environmental footprint. The result from applying the evaluation, which took into account a study for the sport shoes segment, showed that the production technique of Kind Leather is more sustainable than the one traditionally used for conventional leather.
Scot Consultoria: What are the prospects and trends for the domestic and international leather markets in 2021?
Kim Sena: The outlooks for the international and Brazilian leather markets are good. The pandemic has catalyzed the process of people’s awareness about conscientious consumption, whereby they are foregoing the consumption of disposable, non-durable materials.
Consumers and major brands are currently more aware of the sustainability of what they produce and consume, increasingly searching for products committed to concepts like durability, circular economy and quality, which should open lots of opportunities and markets for the leather industry which is very much to the fore on all these issues. Because of the strength of its fibers, leather is a highly durable material compared to synthetic options, and this should improve the outlook for 2021.