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Furniture, wood & rattan

Leather goods

Indonesia has genuine leather craft, concentrated in Java. The workshop decides how the bag is made and the tannery decides whether it can be sold, because chromium and dye chemistry are regulated in the markets that buy.

How it leaves the country.

Bags and small goods
The main export trade. Cut, skived and stitched by hand or on flatbed machines.
Footwear
Sandals and shoes, a separate capability with its own lasting and sole construction questions.
Upholstery leather
Hides sold by the square foot to furniture makers, specified by thickness, finish and grade.
Exotic leathers
Where the species is protected or listed, permits are required and the paperwork is the whole transaction.

How it is graded.

Assessed on the leather first and the making second. Buyers who inspect the stitching and ignore the tannery discover the problem at a border rather than in a showroom.

Chromium VI
Restricted in leather articles in the European Union and elsewhere. It forms after tanning under the wrong conditions, so it is a test result rather than a process assurance.
Azo dyes
Certain dyes releasing restricted amines are prohibited in articles with skin contact. Testing on the finished article is the check.
Tannage
Chrome, vegetable or combination. It decides feel, colour stability and the whole chemical compliance conversation.
Hide grade and thickness
Full grain, top grain or corrected. Substance in millimetres. Both belong in the specification rather than in an adjective.
Colour consistency
Leather is a natural material dyed in batches. Approve a range rather than one swatch and expect variation across an order.
Construction
Stitch density, edge finishing, hardware quality and lining. This is where a workshop's real skill shows.

How it is packed.

Individual bags and stuffing
Leather creases permanently. Stuffing holds the shape and a crushed bag arrives unsellable.
Mould
The classic leather shipping failure. Humid containers grow mould on leather over weeks, so desiccant and a dry stow are essential.
Metal fittings
Unprotected hardware corrodes in a humid container and marks the leather it touches.
Retail labelling
Material composition, origin and care information, set by the destination and printed in Indonesia.

Where it grows.

  • Garut and West Java

    Java

    An established leather district with tanneries and workshops in the same area.

  • Sidoarjo and East Java

    Java

    Bag and footwear production at scale, with tanning capacity nearby.

  • Yogyakarta

    Java

    Craft workshops with design capability and smaller runs.

  • Bali

    Bali

    Export-oriented workshops used to international brands and small batch work.

Origins with a protected name.

Names the trade contracts on, most of them on the Indonesian register of geographical indications.

Documentation, where applicable.

Certificate of analysis
Chromium VI and azo dye testing on the finished article by a laboratory your market recognises.
REACH
For the European Union, restrictions on substances in articles apply to the finished goods and the obligation is the importer's.1
EU general product safety
General safety obligations with a responsible person established in the union.2
CITES permit
Where an exotic species is listed. Without the permit the goods are seized rather than delayed.3

What a shipment needs depends on the product, the producer and the market it is going to. We map the documents against your destination before anyone quotes a price.

Questions buyers ask.

Why does the tannery matter more than the workshop?

Because the chemical restrictions that decide whether you can legally sell a leather article are set at tanning. A perfectly made bag from non-compliant leather is unsellable in Europe, and the workshop usually does not know which tannery supplied what.

How do I stop leather arriving mouldy?

Dry storage before loading, desiccant in the cartons, and a stow away from the container walls. It is the most common failure in this category and it is entirely preventable.

Can I get vegetable tanned leather?

Yes, and it is a different material with different colour behaviour and a different price. It also changes the chemical compliance picture, which is one reason buyers ask for it.

What does your service cost?

Five per cent of the order value, paid by you and never by the factory. A factory audit starts at $250 depending on location. We work with orders from $10,000 per shipment.

Tell us what you need.

Give us the specification and the destination port. We come back with producer options and an indicative price. Our fee is 5 % of the order value, paid by you and never by the factory.

One line is enough to start. The more exact you are, the faster the answer comes back.

What you want back

Add a specification, packaging or a target price

Optional, and the fastest way for us to reply.

We answer within one working day, from Indonesia on UTC+7. Wholesale orders from $10,000 per shipment.

Sources

  1. 1REACH registration and the only representative. European Chemicals Agency. Checked 3 August 2026.
  2. 2Regulation (EU) 2023/988 on general product safety. EUR-Lex. Checked 5 August 2026.
  3. 3Species+, the CITES listings database. UNEP-WCMC and the CITES Secretariat. Checked 5 August 2026.