High-fashion supply chain linked to Amazon destruction near COP30 climate site

24.06.2025 - Earthsight

Prestigious fashion houses are buying leather from companies with supply chain links to illegal cattle farms in the most deforested part of Brazil's Amazon rainforest, where climate talks are due to begin in November.

Nonprofit investigative group Earthsight analyzed court rulings, satellite imagery, shipping records and went undercover to connect the supply chain of American fashion house Coach to a giant Brazilian slaughterhouse with a history of purchasing thousands of cattle raised on illegally deforested land.

Almost all of Brazil’s recent Amazon loss is caused by cattle ranching, often illegal. The worst-hit state is Pará, where an area nearly twice the size of Portugal has burned in the past two decades. Brazil has pledged to end all deforestation in the country by 2030 and has chosen Pará to host international climate talks, the first COP to be held in a rainforest region.

Almost all of the leather exported from Pará to Europe goes to Italy, including the hides from the suspect slaughterhouse. Much of that leather goes to two tanneries in the Veneto region, Conceria Cristina and Faeda, where it is processed and rebranded as Italian leather. Earthsight’s undercover investigators were told by a representative of Conceria Cristina that a regular buyer of its Brazilian leather is Coach.

Other buyers of one or both of the Italian tanneries include Chanel, Chloé, Hugo Boss, LVMH's Fendi and Louis Vuitton brands, as well as Kering Group's Balenciaga, Gucci and Saint Laurent brands. (continued...)

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