India’s leather industry is under growing pressure to reduce its dependence on chromium tanning. India is not alone. A 2021 study showed that nearly 85–90 percent of the world’s leather is processed using chromium salts. The reason is simple: efficiency. What takes weeks through traditional vegetable tanning can be done in less than a day using chromium.
Unfortunately, the chromium used in our industry often finds its way to local water bodies. For an industry built for speed and cost control, chrome tanning is the perfect answer. However, the momentum has shifted, and sustainability is the new normal.
The alternatives do exist, but real question is which of them can work at commercial scale, and whether India can use that shift to move into a more valuable segment of the global market.
Could vegetable tanning be the solution?
Vegetable tanning remains the clearest alternative. It uses natural tannins from plant sources instead of chromium salts, produces a distinct finish, and is often associated with premium leather goods rather than mass-market volume. It is slower, more technique-sensitive and harder to standardise. But that is also precisely why it sits at the higher end of the market. The leather is valued for how it ages, the depth of its finish, and the quality story it can carry.
Other transition pathways are also opening up. Some tanneries are experimenting with lower-chrome processes, hybrid systems and cleaner in-process technologies that reduce chemical load and water use without requiring the industry to switch everything overnight. This is quite normal since transitions in the leather industry generally happen in a gradual manner.
And that is exactly how Italy transformed their much-maligned leather industry.
How will India transform the leather industry?
India has usually competed the global leather markets thanks to its cost and labour advantages. But with the European Green Deal coming in to effect and the push for sustainable products across the globe, India needs to map a different strategy.
India could use vegetable tanning and better processing standards to build a stronger presence in premium leather. That market is smaller, but more profitable. And it rewards exactly the things India has often underused in its leather story: craftsmanship, traceability, finish quality and specialised production.
Instead of promoting vegetable tanning as a compliance issue, India can promote it as the more luxurious alternative. Vegetable-tanned leather can be the ideal alternative and also be a value-added opportunity. If Indian firms can improve tanning methods, standardise quality and build stronger export narratives around cleaner production, they could compete for buyers who are already paying more for leather that carries both quality and sustainability credentials.
The good news: India’s leather industry is taking steps
There are signs that parts of the industry are already moving in that direction. UNIDO’s work in Kanpur has focused on cleaner technologies that cut water and energy use, reduce waste, and improve tannery performance. Leather Working Group, meanwhile, has become one of the most visible international frameworks shaping responsible leather supply chains, and Indian suppliers are already participating in that ecosystem through certification and audit-linked market access
Can faux leather be the better option instead of chromium-based leather products?
Unfortunately, many so-called vegan alternatives are still petroleum-based plastics. They may avoid animal inputs, but they can introduce a different sustainability problem through fossil-fuel dependence and synthetic waste.
So, the choice is not as simple as “real leather bad, faux leather good.” In many cases, the more meaningful comparison is between poorly produced leather and better produced leather.
Will India be able to produce good leather?
As a lesson from all these factors, the Indian leather industry needs to introduce gradual changes that starts moving chromium farther away. Here’s how the staged transition can look like: reduce chemical intensity where possible, improve water systems, support cleaner tanning methods, and build a premium export story around vegetable-tanned and better-processed leather.
The global push for sustainable choices in the leather market puts India in a special position, that it must capitalise on. On top of that, this might just be our last chance to make Indian leather valuable in global markets, meet the standards, reduce chromium pollution in our water bodies and at the same time, improve the working conditions of those who work in this incredibly challenging sector.
