Australia's hide (skin) export

Australia is one of the world's largest exporters of raw cattle hides (skins).

According to the Australian Hide, Skin and Leather Exporters Association (AHSLEA), the hides (skins) of around 8 million cattle, and the skins of over 26 million sheep, goats and kangaroos, are used for leather every year. 

In 2021, Australia exported AUD 598 million worth of hides and skins, most of them raw, to be tanned overseas. 80% of these went to China, 9% to Italy, 4% to Vietnam, and the remainder to 36 other countries, including India and Bangladesh, where they were tanned and processed into leather products sold around the world.

The global leather market

The global leather market was valued at USD 531.07 billion in 2025 and projected to grow to USD 982.42 billion by 2034, according to Fortune Business Insights.

China is commonly referred to as the world's largest producer and exporter of leather and leather products. ¹ ² ³ ⁴ ⁵ 

India, Brazil, and Italy are also among the countries that tan, assemble, finish, and/or export enormous amounts of leather and leather products.

Child labour, forced labour, and labour rights violations in the global leather supply chain

Forbes reports, "The reality of major companies from Western Europe producing in the Eastern region of the continent or in Asia to cut costs by exploiting workers has been documented for years". 

The United States Department of Labor released a report titled '2024 List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor', flagging the following countries and items for child labor:

Bangladesh: Leather, footwear, garments, and more.

India: Leather goods/ accessories, footwear, garments, and more.

Mexico: Leather goods/ accessories, garments, and more.

Pakistan: Leather, garments, and more.

Vietnam: Leather, footwear, garments, and more.

In addition, China was flagged for forced labor regarding footwear, garments, and more.

The farming of bovines or cattle (animals whose skins are commonly used in leather), was flagged for child labor, forced labor, or both, in the following 21 countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Chad, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mauritania, Mexico, Niger, Pakistan, Paraguay, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

The Fair Labor Association (FLA)'s report on the leather industry in Brazil (published in 2025) revealed there is child labor, forced labor, and labor rights violations throughout the leather supply chain in Brazil, including in cattle farming, slaughterhouse work, leather tanning, and leather workshops. 

'Made in China'

Human rights abuses and child labour have been documented in leather and footwear production in China. The study 'Tricky Footwork: The Struggle for Labour Rights in the Chinese Footwear Industry (May 2016)' is part of the international campaign 'Change Your Shoes', where "eighteen European and Asian organisations [came] together to raise awareness about problems in the production of leather and footwear." 

The study found that "labour law violations are still a common phenomenon in the Chinese leather and footwear industry. The people who work at the factories that supply European brands such as Adidas, Clarks and ECCO told us of, among other infringements, salaries that are far below a living wage, involuntary overtime, insufficient protection from health and safety risks, [and] state violence to suppress strikes".

A worker testimony quote reveals, "During the strike, the police set their dogs on us and commanded them to bite."

The study also speaks about child labour, stating "a 13-year-old child died of exhaustion in a footwear factory" in Dongguan, China, in 2014. They continued, "This was tragic proof that certain factories continue to illegally employ children." 

The study also notes, "Reports published in 2014 on child labour in Daliangshan, a remote region of Sichuan Province, reveal that children from the poorer regions of China still flock to the factories to supplement their family's income".

The 'Made in Italy' loophole

The Fair Labor Association found that "a lack of transparency between farms, slaughterhouses, and tanneries results in lost information, low product traceability, undisclosed facilities, and low visibility into working conditions."

The label on a leather product will only tell you where the final product was 'finished'. That may not be the same country where the animal was born or killed, where the leather was tanned, or even where the majority of the manufacturing process was carried out.

For example, a cow could be born and raised in one country, live exported to be killed in another, have their skin tanned in a third country, and the product mostly assembled in a fourth, before being exported to Italy for 'finishing'. The label on the finished product would only read 'Made in Italy', with no mention of the countries where the previous steps happened.

According to Portolano Cavallo (a legal firm providing analysis on Italian and European Union law), the law "allows the coveted 'made in Italy' tag to be legitimately attached to products that have undergone only two stages of manufacturing in Italy, even where the processes in question – such as finishing and packaging in the case of textiles – contribute comparatively little to the character of the product."

As Dana Thomas, a cultural correspondent and author of 'Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster', reports: "It may read that it's made in Italy, but, in fact, it could have been made in China and the handle was attached in Italy or the buttons were sewed on in Italy, and, therefore, gets a made-in-Italy label."

Exploitative leather workshops in Italy

Even when the full manufacturing process does physically take place in Italy, the 'Made in Italy' label does not guarantee fair labour conditions. 

Dana Thomas tells American radio broadcaster, NPR: "There are sweatshops in Italy now that are manned by Chinese immigrants or even [undocumented immigrants] who are paid a fraction of what Italian workers earn. Italian workers earn about [US] $18 - $19 an hour, but the Chinese [workers] earn [US] $2 and $3 an hour."

Forbes reports, "[In 2018] the New Yorker brought up the issue again, revealing hordes of Chinese immigrants that assembled designer bags in Tuscany [Italy] under dubious conditions."

In 2021, a report by Reuters, also published via Euronews, highlighted an arrest in Florence, Italy. Four subcontractors of a luxury fashion brand "exploited [at least 40] immigrant workers from countries including China, Pakistan and Bangladesh, [forcing them to] work up to 14 hours a day [making luxury leather handbags] for just over 3 euros an hour". 

Deborah Lucchetti, national coordinator at the Italian segment of Clean Clothes Campaign (a labour rights network), told The Guardian: "Luxury is based on a production system founded on cost reduction, profit maximisation and opaque supply chains based on subcontracting, which often employ immigrant workers who have no protection and contracts."

The leather-deforestation link in Brazil and beyond

That same label that hides labour conditions can also conceal the environmental cost. For example, a leather handbag with a label reading 'Made in Italy' could be made from the skin of a cow who was born, farmed, and killed in Brazil, where about 80% of Amazon deforestation is caused by cattle farming. ¹ ² ³ The label on the handbag would only read 'Made in Italy', with no mention of Brazil.

Deforestation is not unique to Brazil. Land clearing for cattle farming causes mass deforestation across the globe. ⁴ ⁵ According to the World Resources Institute Global Forest Review: "Globally, the conversion of forests to cattle pasture resulted in an estimated 45.1 Mha of deforestation between 2001 and 2015, five times more than for any of the other analyzed commodities."

Additionally, land clearing to grow food to feed animals bred, farmed, and killed for leather, meat, and dairy causes further deforestation across the globe.