From 22 to 26 May ACCIÓ held the International Business Days with a focus on Europe, five themed days in which the current business opportunities of the European markets were brought closer to Catalan companies in order to boost their trade agreements with other markets around the world.

Within the framework of these International Business Days, a session was held on the design and fashion sector, attended by Leather Cluster Barcelona and other clusters in this field, MODACC and AMBIT, with the participation of all the directors of the ACCIÓ overseas offices in Europe. The aim of the day was for the clusters to be able to interact and learn at first hand about the trends of the European markets, and to seek possible opportunities for the companies in their cluster.

The session was structured so that each cluster gave a brief presentation of its challenges and strategies, emphasising its international experience in these markets and setting out its future objectives.

In his presentation, Jordi Vidal, executive director of Leather Cluster Barcelona, explained to those attending the workings of the leather cluster and the entire business ecosystem that forms part of it, as well as the main transformative and cross-cutting projects that the cluster is carrying out with various companies and stakeholders in the leather industry value chain, aligned with the association’s main strategic pillars such as the circular economy, sustainability, talent, sustainable fashion and shared value.

In his address, Jordi Vidal highlighted the high degree of internationalisation of Leather Cluster Barcelona members, which, with 85% of their output exported, is well above the average for Catalan companies. He also championed the cluster as a pole of attraction, on the one hand for students on leather technology and leather garment-making courses, and on the other for investment and business in the fields of processing, design, manufacturing and fashion in the Igualada leather ecosystem.

A speed-meeting session was then held, in which the cluster managers had the opportunity to speak with all the directors of the ACCIÓ offices in Europe. In these conversations Leather Cluster Barcelona sought opportunities in Europe to acquire knowledge of advanced circular economy and sustainability technologies. Likewise, the cluster highlighted its objective of attracting foreign students to the new LEATECH Erasmus Mundus Master’s degree promoted by the UdL and to the new higher vocational training degree in Leather Sculptural Techniques at the La Gaspar Municipal School of Art.

Leather Cluster Barcelona is an environment of competitive cooperation for promoting cross-cutting, transformative strategic projects with the aim of driving the ecosystem of the Catalan leather sector. The cluster is an accredited entity within the Catalonia Clusters programme and is supported by Acció.