In this and the next two weeks, only the skeleton staff is left in the offices and where production is necessary, such as in our case, they are trying to get through the holiday period with the remaining staff. In our case, and probably in the whole of continental Europe, it is extremely helpful that the kill is still extremely low. The very warm temperatures do not invite people to consume beef and only the restaurants report quite satisfactory business. The water shortage is also playing a major role in many regions and it remains to be seen how the lack of feed and the expensive prices for feed will have an effect at the end of the holiday season. This situation means that the low production and the demand and supplies outside continental Europe are sufficient at the moment to absorb the current rawhide production. This means that there are no particularly large additional kill numbers that could put additional pressure on the market at the moment. This leaves only the question marks regarding the stocks that are said to have already accumulated in many cases over the spring. As is so often the case, assume that where there is smoke, there is also a fire somewhere, but all that will only really become clear after the end of the holidays. There is no particularly big impetus coming from Asia. Only the large industrial producers have little alternative but to keep looking for supplies of raw materials. The small and medium-sized companies obviously have no interest in or need for new purchases at the moment. The result is that the market and the position of the suppliers are tested

again and again with low bids, and if one or the other wants to get rid of a lot, then here and there is obviously a sporadic deal. However, the prices are then well below what is commonly called „the market“ and in any case below the published market prices. The only and still decisive question, which has been with us for many months now, remains how great the demand for leather will be in the winter half-year and what demand for raw hides will develop there. The assessment of the individual market participants has not changed in the past week. Everyone plays their own game and behaves according to their own positioning. The slaughterhouses and large suppliers continue to play the low production card and the leather producers behave accordingly, pointing to the unsatisfactory orders. The summer, and especially August, is of course not particularly helpful for such situations. For us, business was again in line with the season. Random business in Asia, which was almost exclusively focused on better quality today and – where necessary – the renewal of ongoing regular programmes in Europe. The best prices were more or less unchanged, but in the sum of all contracts we would say that prices were again slightly down.

The kill

As already mentioned at the beginning, the kill remains extremely low. One can look for all reasons, but the most important one is probably the weather. Many slaughterhouses sometimes suspend slaughtering one day a week in order to at least achieve a reasonably satisfactory level of capacity utilisation for their plants on the other days. Here, too, the exciting question for the coming months is how farmers will deal with their current livestock. The livestock has not yet been reduced significantly and at some point the day will come when you have to decide when to sell your livestock. By all logic, we should expect a major wave of slaughter before the end of the year. Whether the cattle stocks will then be replenished, however, can at least be regarded as very doubtful.

What do we expect

This week, too, we honestly have no reason at all to assume that anything fundamental will change in the market situation in the near future. At some point towards the end of the month and into September, new trends will and must emerge, so it will certainly be very exciting to see what happens when slaughter numbers return to normal levels.