Global trade in leather and leather goods is undergoing a structural shift as sustainability, due diligence, and deforestation-related regulations have increasingly come to shape market access for leather exporters. In this state of affairs, digital traceability has emerged as an enabling compliance tool, often used alongside documentary evidence, which allows regulators, buyers and consumers to verify the origins of products, the upstream land-use practices, environmental performance, and social conditions associated with the production and distribution across complex supply chains.

Bangladesh’s leather and leather goods sector – one of the country’s most important export industries – is directly affected by these developments. As leather is derived from cattle (a forest-risk commodity under some international due diligence regimes), Bangladeshi exporters must therefore demonstrate robust upstream traceability to international market operators. In practice, this shifts data and verification requirements upstream, meaning Bangladeshi exporters will increasingly need to provide verifiable geolocation and chain-of-custody information to their international counterparts to maintain market access to international markets.  However, persistent challenges related to environmental performance, fragmented supply chains, limited digital infrastructure, and weak policy coordination have constrained the sector’s ability to meet these rapidly tightening requirements.

This report makes an original contribution by presenting the Leathertrace Bangladesh Policy Blueprint, a comprehensive and evidence-based roadmap for accelerating the adoption of digital traceability across the leather sector. Developed through a co-creation research methodology, the blueprint demonstrates its relevance in proposing eleven interdependent policy pillars covering governance, legal frameworks, standards, financing, capacity building, digital infrastructure, and enforcement – with each pillar underpinning a corresponding set of policy goals and actions. Together, the elements of this policy blueprint are designed to enhance the wide adoption of traceability technologies within the leather sector in Bangladesh, thus ensuring its trade competitiveness and continued access to high-value global markets.

Read more in the Policy Blueprint or a summary in the accompanying Policy Brief.