The reasoning is solid (even if it isn’t news, with regards to production methods). The project has collected the necessary funds to become a reality. We are in France, where the start-up Cuir Marin de France is ready to make a small tannery, specialized in fish hides, operational. All three founders are chemical engineers at centre Technique du Cuir: Benjamin Malatrait, Gauthier Lefébure et Emmanuel Fourault. “Almost 100% of bovine hides are of value thanks to the tanning industry. While nearly 0% of fish hides are used”, says Malatrait, highlighting how this product “has enormous development potential”, and adding that “we surely will not start farming fish for its hides. Our starting point is the exact opposite. For bovine hides, the goal is to add value to a leftover product of the food industry: in France, today, about 50,000 tons of fish hides are thrown in the thrash each year”. From here, comes the decision of developing a tanning process “based only on molecule of vegetal origin”, and to launch a crowdfunding campaign that, to today, has gathered 100,000 of the 300,000 euros necessary to open the tannery, but the amount is enough for them to be granted loans from banks. The production site should open in April 2019, in Chessy (Beaujolais area), it will have 6 employees, and it aims at reaching 1 million euro in revenue within 3 years. An extreme niche, for a tannery that will begin to tan salmon hides, and will later differentiate its production, adding carp and sturgeon. Target: luxury consumers, ça va sans dire.
50,000 tons of fish hides are thrown away in France every year: The start-up Cuir Marin wants to safeguard the byproduct and tan it
