The Meeting Place for the Global Leather Industry, APLF Leather, Fashion Access and Materials+, will finally make its long-awaited return to its home base at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) from 19-21 March 2024.
Despite a five-year hiatus since the last edition of APLF, held in Hong Kong in 2019, there are promising economic signs and indications from the Asian leather industry that APLF could support the area’s economic revival. The financial context will be outlined later, but one factor that has encouraged and supported the leather and manufacturing sectors is the results recorded at the recent All China Leather Exhibition (ACLE) in Shanghai. This event attracted more than 28,000 buyers mainly from China but also from Southeast Asia and other countries around the world. With over 1,000 exhibitors, ACLE beat its historic visitor record by 20% compared to 2019. This illustrates the leather industries’ need for a professional business platform where they can negotiate, find new suppliers and create new networks with colleagues and new potential buyers. The turnover recorded at ACLE therefore promises to be auspicious for APLF next March.
This edition will see significant changes in the exhibition layout, already planned for 2020 and obviously cancelled. The area dedicated to leather goods which was located on Level 1 will in fact move to Level 3 of the Exhibition Centre, while Fashion Access and Materials+ will move to Level 1.
The new configuration will offer organizers the opportunity to resegment and group the product offering and will thus facilitate the influx of buyers and visitors. Furthermore, this shift will favor the mixing of design with fashion, reconnecting all operators in the sector to the leather supply chain.
The impact on travelling and face-to-face business during the pandemic is now behind us and APLF will resume its mission of serving the global leather and fashion industries accompanied by its sister events, Materials+ and Fashion Access consolidating the 3-in-1 format of recent years.
The international importance of the event for the leather industry is reflected by the global mix of participants at the trade fair. So far, the following national pavilions have confirmed their participation at APLF Leather; Australia, Brazil (Assintecal, CICB), China, France (SGCP, FFTM), Germany, India, Italy (ASSOMAC, UNIC), Japan, Korea, Pakistan, Portugal, Türkiye and USA. Pavilions that will have exhibitors join individually are Spain, Mexico, Taiwan and Thailand.
Organizers expect positive feedback and welcome enthusiastically the return of APLF to its Hong Kong base after a frustrating forced gap of five years.
