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FABRIZIO NUTI: "A YEAR OF CHALLENGES AWAITS US" The annual meeting of UNIC – Italian Tanneries draws up the balance of a 2022 that started well but ended in slow motion with repercussions also on the activity of 2023
“There are many challenges ahead of us, from the conditions of the general socio-economic context to technological and regulatory ones, but if we were unable to face them and adapt, we would find ourselves in a condition of competitive disadvantage. This absolutely must not happen and I am sure it will not happen ”. With these words from President Fabrizio Nuti, UNIC – Italian Tanneries opened the works of the annual Assembly, held on 30 June in Pozzuoli, in the premises of the Italian Leather Research Institute (SSIP). THE CURRENT CHALLENGE From an economic point of view, the 2022 balance drawn up by UNIC shows that "in the end - says Nuti -, we managed overall, as a sector, to limit the damage, closing the year with substantial stability in production volumes and growth in overall value just under 10%. We have therefore not (yet) managed to return to pre-Covid levels". A comment that does not hide the disappointment of having seen, at the end of 2022, "the positive market dynamics that had characterized the first part of the year come to an abrupt end", also due to the "return of an economic opponent who has not we had to face: inflation – continues the UNIC president -. The production drops recorded by the sec18
tor as a whole in the second half of 2022 are also having repercussions in this first part of 2023, highlighting a slowdown that is more or less widespread in almost all of our product destinations". A "change at the top" in the export ranking is very significant. “After more than 30 years, China, with Hong Kong, is no longer the most important foreign destination for our hides, also in terms of the value of the flows. Now in first place we find France and this suggests how our production, our customers, our markets and the elements required by commercial dynamics are partially changing". THE POLITICAL-INSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGE A challenge that coincides with a deep concern is that which, for UNIC, concerns the relationship with the institutions. As Nuti points out, “it would be desirable for the institutions, above all, to line up alongside us, at all levels, to defend a strategic sector of Made in Italy. In particular, in Brussels our requests are mostly ignored. It is a problem experienced by “many other productive sectors. It seems that the current European political-institutional framework is developing an idiosyncrasy towards industrial activities in general, which are considered harmful to the environment regardless and are therefore
