What happened this week: If anybody thought that BSE is a problem and an epidemic, he hasn’t thought about foot and mouth disease. Also German bureaucrats and politicians should now understand what a real problem is and where to invest their efforts. However, insight is not one of the strong characteristics of a public officer. While the epidemic is spreading around England and has now jumped over to Northern Island continental Europe is now under highest alert. Until today no infection was traced and killing of imported animals continues everywhere in the hope that an outbreak can be avoided. However, it has to be clear that with the movement of people and goods from the UK to the continent there is a continuous risk of infections and outbreak. This would be then the final disaster, since it would bring killing in larger parts of Europe to a hold and consequently also the

also the supply of hides. There was also a bit of hide business this week even when this was the least of interest in the daily work. Also this week the clientele was the same as in most of the previous ones. Side leather tanners and automotive bought for quick shipments and tried to secure supply of bulls and ox/heifers. Interest for cows remained slow and no interest form Asian tanners was seen. Prices for males and heifers where able to advance moderately while quotations for cows where unchanged. Leather business seems to slow down and the demand is more based on low stocks and security buying rather than buoyant interest for leather. Everywhere are rumours about slower payments and less L/C’s arriving.   The kill: In Germany steady at about 65-75 % of a normal season. The cull kill is getting closer. The hide and tanning industry tries to establish a cooperative of the industry to handle

the kill and the logistics properly. Subject several obstacles to be resolved it seems that the structure and organisation will be established in time and the operations can be carried out according to the regulations. This would be the first and may be also the last time that the industry was able to create a way of cooperation. What do we expect? The market will just react to the supply, i.e. the disease situation. For the rest of March we will live under the threat of FaM until we will now if it is spreading further. If yes, the consequences can not be calculated. If not, we see a fair chance that the market will correct for various reasons explained many times in our previous reports, but mainly for financial matters. In any case the world of hides is going to change now rapidly in Europe since we will have to handle also more regulations which will also include the collagene business. Not everyone can adopt to the times after the catastrophies. .