French Leather Industry Association Alliance France Cuir has released new trade data of its industry’s performance for January to September 2025 period and the numbers reveal a mixed performance with both gains and declines.
Let’s start with raw hide and skin exports. This segment brought in €150.1 million in exports which is a 2% drop from €152.5 million in the same period last year.
Imports also fell in this category. France imported €108 million worth of raw hides and skins in the first nine months of 2025.
Breaking this category down further raw bovine hides which make up the largest share of the trade brought in €91.4 million in export value compared to €91.7 million last year.
Raw calfskin exports continued to fall. They dropped 17% to €27.8 million compared to €33.3 million last year.
Raw sheepskins moved in the opposite direction with stronger demand pushing export value up 21% to €11.4 million compared to €9.4 million in 2024.
Raw exotic skins like reptile saw a small rise of 1% reaching €17.6 million compared to last year.
Moving to leather exports which include both semi finished and finished leather this segment as a whole slipped 1%.
The total export value stood at €160.1 million which is slightly lower than €162.4 million recorded in the first nine months of 2024.
The €160.1 million in exports also includes semi finished leather which fell sharply by 26% to €15.6 million down from €21.2 million last year.
Finished leather however showed some strength. It rose 2% reaching €144.5 million compared to €141.2 million in 2024.
If you dive deeper into finished leather exports, bovine leather export was €62.4 million which is a 4% increase from €59.9 million.
Calf leather exports jumped 31% to €36.1 million compared to €27.6 million.
Sheep leather exports dropped 10% to €32.3 million from €35.9 million in the same period last year and exotic leather fell 20% to €9.4 million compared to €11.8 million last year.
The French leather trade is moving in a mixed pattern with strong gains in some segments and steady declines in others. The numbers show a sector adapting to shifting global demand with both pressure points and bright spots ahead.
