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Press release…
May, 2026
With just a few days to go before Eid al-Adha, Halil Gündoğdu, Chair of the Aegean Leather and Leather Goods Exporters’ Association, has called for the hides of sacrificial animals to be put to economic use.
Speaking at a press conference organised by the Aegean Exporters’ Associations, Halil Gündoğdu, Chair of the Aegean Leather and Leather Goods Exporters’ Association, highlighted that hundreds of thousands of hides are lost to the economy each year during Eid al-Adha due to incorrect slaughter and storage methods, drawing attention to the critical role of raw materials in the leather sector’s sustainable production chain.
10 million pairs of shoes and 3 million bags’ worth of leather is going to waste…
Gündoğdu highlighted that in recent years, approximately 500,000 hides from large livestock have been wasted during Eid al-Adha due to incorrect skinning and failure to salt the hides in a timely manner.
“With these lost hides, approximately 10 million pairs of shoes and 3 million women’s handbags could have been produced,” he said.
“In addition, there is a significant loss of raw materials in the gelatine and collagen industries. Slaughter is not carried out specifically for the leather sector; by-products from animals slaughtered for food are integrated into the economy in a sustainable manner. In this respect, our sector serves as a strong example of a circular economy,” he noted…
