Checking a Brazilian leather exporter before you buy

If you have not read what wet blue is, start there, because several of the checks below only make sense once you know that wet blue trades on weight with moisture counted and has no single grading standard.

The general registry checks, in brief

The base legitimacy checks are the same for leather as for beef or coffee, so they are only summarised here. A buyer can pull a Brazilian company's registration card, the Comprovante de Inscrição e de Situação Cadastral, free and without a login from Receita Federal, and the status field is the one to read. Only ATIVA is a clean result. SUSPENSA, INAPTA, BAIXADA or NULA all mean the company cannot operate normally, and a company that is not ATIVA cannot properly issue the documents a shipment needs.

The right to export is checked through the Siscomex habilitação consultation on Portal Único, also free and without a login. Note the recent move: as of 31 August 2026 this check runs through Portal Único rather than the old RADAR page, which is being switched off on 30 September 2026. A company claiming years of export experience that does not show up as habilitado is a flag. The full mechanics, including the CNAE activity codes and the tax-clearance certidão, are on the general supplier-verification page.

For leather specifically, the activity code check has an obvious reading: a genuine tannery's registered activity should relate to tanning or leather. A company whose CNAE has nothing to do with hides but is offering wet blue is worth a closer look.

Industry signals specific to leather

Two leather-specific signals help, without replacing the government checks.

The first is CICB membership. CICB, the Brazilian tanning industry body, keeps an open list of its members, viewable without a login, currently 53 companies, each shown with what it supplies and which segments it serves, with filters by product. Membership does not prove anything on its own, but the large legitimate tanneries are generally in it, so a supplier's presence on that list is a quick first signal and its absence is worth a question.

The second is CSCB, the Certificação de Sustentabilidade do Couro Brasileiro, the Brazilian leather sustainability certification. It is a programme run with CICB support, its standard accredited by ABNT, with audits carried out through the Inmetro framework. Its criteria cover sustainability management and economic, environmental and social responsibility. The first tannery certified under it was Fuga Couros, in Rio Grande do Sul, certified by early 2018.

Here is the honest limit on CSCB. A single public registry listing every CSCB-certified tannery was not confirmed while preparing this page. So the practical route is not to search a public list but to ask the supplier for its certificate and confirm it, through CICB or the Inmetro framework, rather than to assume you can look the company up in a directory. Treat CSCB as a claim to verify with the supplier, not as something a buyer can independently pull from a public database.

Shipping documents for a wet blue consignment

A wet blue shipment carries the same base commercial set as any export. Beyond that, the leather-specific documents are fewer and more conditional than buyers sometimes expect.

Document	Who issues it	When it applies
Commercial invoice	Exporter	Always, base set
Packing list	Exporter	Always, base set
Bill of lading	Shipping line or forwarder	Always, base set
Certificate of Origin	Authorised bodies (entidades habilitadas)	By the importer's request, or for tariff preferences
Chromium (VI) test protocol, ISO 17075	Testing lab, at buyer's request	For EU buyers, as a contract condition (see below)
Sanitary certification, MAPA regime	MAPA regime (Portaria 431/2021), tannery must be habilitado	Depends on destination country

The base set, invoice, packing list, bill of lading, is standard. The Certificate of Origin is issued by authorised bodies and comes into play on the importer's request or where a tariff preference needs it.

On the sanitary side, the honest position is that there is no single confirmed wet-blue-specific mandatory export document. What is confirmed is that non-edible products of animal origin fall under MAPA's animal-origin certification regime, set by Portaria 431/2021, that the regime depends on the destination country, and that the tannery has to be habilitado, registered, under it. The exact name of a mandatory sanitary document specifically for wet blue, and how it varies by country, was not closed by the first sources. So a buyer should ask the supplier what its destination country requires and confirm the tannery's habilitação, rather than demand a named certificate that may not exist as a single fixed document.

There is also the DU-E, the export declaration filed through Portal Único. It is worth knowing that a buyer cannot independently check a DU-E: the consultation needs a digital certificate tied to the exporter's own registration, so DU-E is not a public verification tool. The most a buyer can do is ask the supplier for the DU-E number and reconcile its details against the invoice.

Chromium (VI) and the EU: a contract requirement, not a Brazilian export document

This is the point most often misstated, so it is worth being precise.

Chrome tanning uses chromium (III), Cr2O3. Chromium (III) is the working tanning agent and it is legal; wet blue is chromium (III) tanned by definition. The EU restriction is on chromium (VI), a different, hexavalent form. Under REACH, Annex XVII, entry 47, the chromium (VI) content of leather articles coming into contact with human skin must be at or below 3 mg/kg of dry leather weight. The test method is ISO 17075, with a detection limit of 3 ppm. The restriction comes from Commission Regulation (EU) No 301/2014, dated 25 March 2014, and has applied since 1 May 2015.

The distinction that matters for a wet blue buyer: that 3 mg/kg limit is a legal requirement on the finished article placed on the EU market in contact with skin, not on the import of wet blue as a semi-finished intermediate. So wet blue is not banned in the EU, and there is no Brazilian export document certifying it against the REACH limit. What happens in practice is that an EU buyer makes a chromium (VI) protocol under ISO 17075 a condition of the contract, so that the wet blue it buys will not push the article it eventually makes over the limit. For the buyer, the takeaway is to write the ISO 17075 requirement and a chromium (VI) ceiling into the contract, and treat the test as something you commission or require, not something the Brazilian side supplies as a matter of course.

One related point clears up a frequent confusion: CITES does not apply to bovine leather. Domestic cattle are not a CITES-listed species, so wet blue made from cattle hide does not fall under CITES. CITES covers leather from exotic or protected animals, reptiles and the like, which is a different product. If a supplier or a forwarder raises CITES for ordinary cattle wet blue, that is a misunderstanding.

Red flags specific to wet blue

Some warning signs come straight from how wet blue is traded and graded.

Moisture above what was declared is the first. Wet blue is sold by weight with the moisture counted, so water above the agreed level is water you are paying for at the leather price. The defence is to fix a maximum moisture in the contract and require it to be measured, rather than accept a weight figure on trust. This is where a moisture check at pre-shipment inspection earns its keep.

Grade and defect mismatch is the second. Because there is no single industry grade scale for wet blue, the sorting is whatever the contract says. A spread of defects, scars, tick or grub damage, flesh-side damage, against a loosely worded grade is hard to dispute after the fact. The fix is a buyer specification that states the grade, the acceptable defects and the thickness, or substance, tolerance in the contract itself, since no external standard fills that gap.

Chromium (VI) over the EU limit is the third, for EU-bound goods. A batch above 3 mg/kg makes the eventual finished article non-compliant, so require the ISO 17075 protocol before shipment rather than after.

The rest overlap with the general legitimacy checks: a supplier not showing in the Siscomex habilitação despite a claimed export record, a CNPJ that is not ATIVA, an activity code with no connection to leather or tanning, and payment directed to an account that does not match the exporter named in the contract. Each of these is covered in more depth on the general supplier-verification and payment terms pages.

Putting the checks in order

A workable sequence: confirm the company first (CNPJ ATIVA, Siscomex habilitado, activity code fits leather), then the leather signals (CICB membership, and the CSCB certificate if sustainability is part of the deal), then the goods (contract moisture ceiling, grade and thickness spec, and for the EU an ISO 17075 chromium (VI) clause). The document set beyond the commercial base is thinner and more conditional than for meat, and no single named wet-blue sanitary document is confirmed. What protects the buyer is the contract specification and, where the numbers matter, an independent moisture and chrome check before the cargo sails.

The market context is on the leather export market data page.

Sources

• CNPJ status (ATIVA and the other four statuses) and Siscomex habilitação, including the move to Portal Único on 31 August 2026 with the old RADAR page off on 30 September 2026: Receita Federal and Portal Único Siscomex, confirmed; full mechanics on the general supplier-verification page.
• CICB open member list, 53 members with supply and segment detail: CICB associados page, confirmed.
• CSCB (Certificação de Sustentabilidade do Couro Brasileiro), CICB-supported, ABNT-accredited standard, audited through the Inmetro framework, first tannery Fuga Couros certified by early 2018: International Leather Maker and the CICB CSCB page, confirmed by secondary source. A single public registry of all CSCB-certified tanneries was not confirmed and is not claimed here.
• Base commercial documents, Certificate of Origin by request, and the MAPA animal-origin sanitary regime under Portaria 431/2021 for non-edible animal products (destination-dependent, tannery must be habilitado): confirmed; the exact name of a mandatory wet-blue-specific sanitary document was not confirmed and is not stated. DU-E has no public buyer check: confirmed.
• Chromium (III) as the legal tanning agent; chromium (VI) restriction under REACH Annex XVII entry 47, at or below 3 mg/kg dry weight, method ISO 17075, from Commission Regulation (EU) No 301/2014 of 25 March 2014, applied since 1 May 2015; the limit applying to the finished article in contact with skin rather than to wet blue import, making the wet blue test a contractual buyer requirement: EUR-Lex and secondary industry source, confirmed. CITES not applying to bovine leather: confirmed by secondary source.
• Red flags (moisture above declared, grade and defect mismatch, chromium (VI) over the EU limit, thickness out of tolerance, not in habilitação, CNPJ not ATIVA, activity code not leather, payment to a third party): built on the confirmed trade and registry facts above.

Facts on this page were checked on 8 September 2026. Brazilian export registration and EU chemical rules are revised, so check the current source before relying on any check or figure here.