Bulletin

The recent appreciation of the Brazilian real has come at a bad time for exporters. Last week witnessed a sharp fall in the prices paid for green hides, this week is expected to result in a similar drop, following the poorer returns received for export sales.

Many suppliers are coming to terms with the fact that they may well enter the summer holiday period with a large number of hides in storage. It appears that most hide suppliers in Germany, and indeed across the world, are sitting on more material than the market needs.

The fall-out between the U.S. and China over tariffs, and the subsequent reduction in raw hide values, has, according to one commentator and large exporter caused jeopardy in the Australian market. 

At last, was the cry from one large supplier of raw hides at the end last week, this after they had finally calculated a margin into a sale of hides. 

Currently there is a campaign running in many schools around the world to promote vegan eating. This has started with vegan Mondays, which, has been adopted by many schools from the United States, Thailand, Europe and some South American countries. 

The Greek hide and skin market is reported by one commentator not to be in good shape. All articles show signs of depression. 

All but the most optimistic suppliers now agree that despite recent good sales volumes, the bottom of the market has, as yet, not been found.

Recently, theSauerReport has given notice of the African Swine flu outbreak in China, at the time it was reported that the outbreak had been very localised and that the Chinese authorities had contained the problem. 

With many beef plants around the world, particularly those in the U.S. and Brazil making record profits, maybe it is time they looked to help out the hide and skin trade. 

Green hide sales last week were at fundamentally unchanged prices compared to a couple of weeks prior, at ZAR1.72/kg (about US$¢12/kg).