The leather tanning industry uses hides and skins (by-products from the meat and dairy industry) that would otherwise be disposed of by being sent to landfills or incinerated. Leather is the tanning sector's fundamental output. It is an intermediate industrial product, with applications in downstream sectors of the consumer goods industry.
The most important outlets for EU tanners' production are:
footwear – 41%;
furniture – 17%;
the automotive industry – 13%;
leather goods – 19%;
clothes – 8%;
other – 2%.