What happened this week: The total number of confirmed BSE cases has gone up to 16. Politicians are still fighting about the question if Germany should participate in the EC intervention and slaughter and burn 400.000 cattle over 30 months. Most of the week one still spends with discussing with vets or officials how things should be handled properly. 10 people, 10 opinions. Sales were again reasonable with most of the interest still for side leathers. The furniture fair in Cologne confirmed good interest for high quality leathers and less interest with declining prices for the more economical section. This might increase again between high and lower quality hides. Tanners

concerns are rising since they have not been able to increase their leather prices sufficiently enough over the past week to cover the rising raw material costs. In several segments of leather manufacturing designers are working hard to use less or more economical leathers to keep finished product prices under control. Most buyers came from Europe this weeks with most of the Orient preparing for their Lunar Year holidays. Although it might be the last time many have again to travel to Miami this weekend to gather and to discuss about things .Let’s see if this event might bring more insight about the near future and the price trends. The kill: The rise in the kill of bulls continued. Abattoirs try to

avoid risk cattle as much as they can and farmers hold also back and await the final decisions of politicians about the elder female cattle. The total kill is up to approx. 60 % again. What do we expect? Not much change again. With the Orient on holidays and Europe entirely concentrating on bulls we don’t expect much of a change again. It will be interesting to see if the lack of heavy females will mean something to the market. Some tanners concentrating on this material might face shortage of supply shortly without political decisions. Lighter weights might than be supported and their decline could be cushioned for a moment. Male prices will stay steady for another week.