It was in this context that representatives from IFF and Kopenhagen Fur spent a week this Summer visiting dressers and dyers across Cambodia, Vietnam & China. The delegation included, from Kopenhagen Fur Mr Jesper Uggerhøj (CEO), Mr Soren Valentin (COO) and Mr Thomas Andersen (Head of Dressing) and from IFF, Mark Boyle (Director of Standards, Welfare and Environment.)
Across the companies, the advanced level of the facilities and the skills on show were highly impressive.
From the know-how of the dyers to the fast hands of the fleshers trimming the leather on the backs of the furs, a dressing and dyeing factory certainly has a lot of variety and activity. The experience of these artisan technicians can be seen in the speed and accuracy of their work and their breadth of knowledge in how to prepare and treat the skins. With fur, mistakes are expensive and the task needs care and patience.
As well as the facilities being second to none, also notable was the level of governmental oversight in place. Inspections from the regulators are common and the output of the factories is closely monitored requiring the companies to invest in high quality filtration facilities to make certain the local environment is well protected.
Many of these dressers are now experimenting with alternative dressing and dyeing methods with the help of Thomas Andersen with the aim of cleaner, safer and better quality dressing methods to benefit the global trade.
IFF would like to extend thanks to those dressers that hosted the visits:
- Cambodia – Cipel Cambodia, China Best, Sunjoy
- Vietnam – Sparkle View, Greenwich
- China – Sunjoy