Leather exporters brace for EU curbs on chromium

India’s ₹35,748-crore leather exports industry is straitjacketed with a demand by the European Union to cut down on chromium content.

The 28-nation bloc has brought down to 3mg/kg the permissible limit of chromium VI, a form of chromium classified as cancer-causing. India should comply by May next year, a deadline that has forced leather exporters to rid goods ranging from footwear to dog leashes to car furniture of harmful chromium.

The move comes under the European Union’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), a regulation adopted to protect human health and the environment.

The industry average is around 5-6 mg per kg.

“We are trying out alternative tanning agents such as aluminium. Though any monetary estimate will be premature, we expect a slight cost increase,” said Aslam Basha, Executive Secretary at Indian Finished Leather Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

Over decades, leather manufacturers have been knocking off hazardous chemicals from their processes such as disinfectant Pentachlorophenol and Formaldehyde. “And this is just one more of them,” says Rafeeque Ahmed, President of Federation of Indian Export Organisations. European nations have been stressing on carcinogen-free leather for long. But now, the official mandate is a concern because chromium occurrence is commonplace in the manufacture of footwear, which constitutes 43 per cent of India’s leather exports, he said.

The carcinogen enters leather products chiefly during the tanning process in the form of Chromium III, which is innocuous but converts to the toxic form at higher temperatures. The Central Leather Research Institute, Chennai, is working on a new processing method to limit chromium presence, but it will take months to crystallise.

Ganesh Jeevan, Principal Technical Officer at CLRI, says 3 mg is the lowest detectible amount of chromium in any leather sample.

“No one adds chromium intentionally, and it cannot be completely done away with. This leaves little scope for alternative processing,” he said. Though there have attempts at replacing chromium with zirconium, the rare earth mineral is available at a large premium and the atomic energy industry is a priority buyer.

While small units make up a large portion of the industry, big players such as the Tata Group are also in the business. A spokesperson for Tata International Ltd which exports leather jackets and car upholstery, says a tannery sourcing “good quality” raw material need not fret over the EU mandate.

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