First it was a scramble for the highest-quality leather. Then it was all about securing adequate supplies of crocodile skin. Now, competition in the high-end luxury sector has turned to the ethical sourcing of snake skin.
Kering, the French luxury group formerly known as PPR, said it was creating the Python Conservation Partnership with the aim of “contributing to the improved sustainability of the python trade”.
The alliance, which brings the owner of Gucci together with non-governmental organizations and the International Trade Centre, a joint agency of the World Trade Organization and the UN, involves a three-year research programme looking at sustainability and animal welfare in the python trade.
Luxury groups such as Kering are using increasing amounts of python skin as they seek to protect softening growth rates – in part by driving their products up market where they can command higher price tags.
A Gucci handbag made from python skin retails for at least €2,000 compared with the much cheaper canvas material. But Marie-Claire Daveu, Kering’s chief sustainability officer, says there is a problem of sourcing. “At the international level, we don’t have a methodology shared by all the actors in the python trade to assess the sustainability [of the business],” she told the FT.
One of the problems, she says, is the difficulty in knowing whether the python skins come from captivity or from the wild. Another was ensuring the livelihoods of the families, mainly from Southeast Asia, who work in the trade.
The three-year research programme will focus on five core areas, including monitoring wild capture to improve sustainable sourcing; developing technology to differentiate between captive-bred and wild animals; improving methods for captive breeding; and understanding the impact on families involved in the trade.
Kering said the data and findings of the study would contribute to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites), an international treaty to protect endangered animals and plants.
The initiative follows a scramble by France’s leading luxury groups to secure adequate supplies of exotic and other quality leather to meet rising demand for top-dollar handbags.
Hermès, LVMH and Kering have rushed to buy crocodile farms and tanneries in recent years. In March, PPR, as Kering was then known, bought France Croco, a French tannery that sources and processes crocodile skins.
In the past year or so, meanwhile, Hermès has bought crocodile farms in Cairns, Australia and in Louisiana in the US. The luxury goods company, famous for its Birkin and Kelly bags, says it takes up to three crocodiles to make one bag.
But Ms Daveu of Kering said that the python project was only about the ethical and sustainable aspects of the python-skin trade. “It is a commitment on the sustainability side,” she said.
Source:http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/796d5270-5391-11e3-9250-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2ljF2i3oU
