title: “Syria Hosts SYLEx 3 Exhibition in Aleppo as Local Leather Industry Stages a Cautious Comeback” seo_description: “Syria held the third edition of the SYLEx leather exhibition in Aleppo, drawing regional buyers and signalling a cautious return of one of the Middle East’s oldest leather clusters.” seo_tags: [“Syria”, “Aleppo”, “SYLEx”, “leather exhibition”, “leather industry”, “Middle East”] seo_slug: “syria-sylex-3-exhibition-aleppo” source_url: “https://leathernews.org/syria-hosts-sylex-3-exhibition-aleppo/”

Syria Hosts SYLEx 3 Exhibition in Aleppo as Local Leather Industry Stages a Cautious Comeback

Aleppo, the Syrian city whose leather and tanning history stretches back more than a thousand years, hosted the third edition of the SYLEx (Syria Leather Exhibition) earlier this month, drawing a modest but genuinely international group of buyers, tanners and machinery suppliers. The fair, which occupied a dedicated hall at the city’s recently restored industrial exhibition grounds, was the largest commercial gathering the Syrian leather industry has hosted since the country’s long conflict began, and it signalled a cautious, hard-won return of one of the Middle East’s most distinctive leather clusters.

The numbers were modest by global standards. Around 90 exhibitors from Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq and Iran occupied the main hall, alongside a smaller contingent of Italian and Spanish machinery suppliers. Foot traffic over the three days of the show was estimated by the organisers at just over 4,000 visitors, including several hundred international buyers. Compared with pre-war editions of the broader Aleppo International Fair, those numbers are a fraction of what they once were. Compared with what the Syrian leather industry has been able to mount over the past five years, they represent a significant step forward.

The mood inside the hall was, in its own way, more important than the order books. Tanners, footwear manufacturers and small leather goods producers from Aleppo, Damascus, Hama and Homs spoke openly about the challenges of rebuilding supply chains that were shattered by more than a decade of conflict. Electricity remains unreliable in many of the older industrial zones, and several of the historic tanneries around the old souk of Aleppo are still only partially operational. The financial system, slowly opening up after years of sanctions, is still a difficult environment for an industry that depends on letters of credit and on the ability to receive payment from international customers. And the workforce, hollowed out by displacement and emigration, is being rebuilt only gradually.

But the underlying competitive advantages that made Aleppo one of the great leather centres of the medieval and modern world have not disappeared. The city sits at the centre of a livestock producing region. The local craftsmanship in hand-finished leather, particularly in the production of slippers, sandals and traditional leather goods, remains genuinely world-class. The cluster of small workshops that supply each other with intermediate goods is unusually deep. And the cost base, even allowing for the higher cost of imported chemicals and machinery, remains competitive against the principal alternative sourcing destinations in Turkey, Egypt and Pakistan.

The exhibition itself was structured around three principal sections: finished leather, footwear and leather goods, and machinery and chemicals. The finished leather section, dominated by Syrian tanneries producing both garment and upper leather from local sheep and goat skins, was the busiest. Several of the larger tanneries reported genuine interest from Turkish and Egyptian buyers who have been looking for alternatives to the higher-priced European and Chinese options. The footwear section, which included a small but high-quality contingent of Aleppo-made traditional and contemporary shoes, was less busy but generated some specific inquiries from Gulf-based retailers.

The machinery and chemicals section was the most strategically interesting. Several of the European suppliers present have been waiting, patiently, for the moment when it would be commercially viable to re-enter the Syrian market. The lifting of several layers of European and US sanctions over the past two years has made that moment feel closer, and the exhibition gave a number of senior executives a first chance in more than a decade to walk the floor of an Aleppo tannery. Whether that translates into actual orders in the short term remains to be seen, but the willingness of those suppliers to make the trip is itself a signal.

For the broader Middle Eastern leather industry, the SYLEx exhibition is a reminder that the regional map is shifting. The traditional centres of tanning and leather manufacturing — Turkey, Egypt, Iran and Pakistan — are now being joined, however cautiously, by a re-emerging Syrian industry. The next two or three years will be critical. If the political and security environment remains stable, if the financial system continues to open up, and if the international sanctions regime continues to ease, Aleppo could once again become a meaningful node in the regional leather supply chain. If any of those conditions slips, the cautious optimism on display at SYLEx 3 will not survive another cycle.

Source: Leather News (leathernews.org), reporting on the SYLEx 3 exhibition in Aleppo.