Market Report 24.01.2025

What happened this week

Once again, there was not much exciting or noteworthy to experience and report this week. This is largely due to the fact that we are still very restricted in terms of exports to third countries at the moment due to the situation with the foot and mouth disease. In particular, the market in China is missing and therefore of course also the market that is most important for sales outside the EU. It is possible that not much would have happened this week even without the pandemic, as the Chinese were essentially busy preparing for their New Year celebrations and organising family gatherings. Unfortunately, we are also unable to provide any news regarding the development of the epidemic. Apart from the one case in the buffalo herd near Berlin, which is very strange from today’s perspective, fortunately no further infections have been found to date. Of course, this does not mean a great deal, but the extensive testing in the surrounding area and the fact that no further cases have been confirmed to date means that there is no reason to fear an epidemic, at least for the time being. Nevertheless, the risk still remains with the wild animals and so we will probably have to wait some time before we can actually hope that there have been no further infections. The prospects for this are good at the moment and let’s hope that it stays that way. It is not yet possible to say what this will ultimately mean for exports to third countries, as it is not possible to reliably predict when individual countries will lift import restrictions. The fact that the lists of official import bans do not correspond to the actual situation in some countries also remains a major problem. In any case, without the market in China for a significant proportion of production, there is no really reliable market situation to report here. At the moment, we are more concerned with determining what alternatives would arise for the hides in the event of a longer export ban. What is keeping the market and, above all, tanners in Europe busy is the fact that slaughterings are currently quite high for the month of January, while production in many tanneries continues to be significantly reduced, which naturally raises the question of whether there is a surplus of raw material and, if so, where these hides are currently going. Everyone has their own views on this and most people pick the one that best suits their needs. Sales this week were again mostly limited to random transactions to cover short-term supply gaps here and there. There has been little change in prices, although the low volumes mean that prices are not representative for the market at present.