What happened this week: Bologna is over and we assume, that most visitors were positively surprised from the presentation most of the exhibitors have given. A firework of nice and beautiful articles, fashion taste and progress in finishing technology was burned down and it is clear, that many European or better said Italian tanners have taken up the challenge and have prepared to face the competitors from around the globe. In recent history of the show the concerns about the shift of production to low cost countries were frequently in the focus of discussions, we saw a lot of optimism and confidence and only few comments about the ‘threat’. All this applies definitely mostly for the tanners producing shoe leathers or fashion leather for the leathergoods sector and in so far the positive impression on had to have already for quite some time was just again confirmed. However, also the upholstery tanners one was able to meet did not seem to be stuck in depression anymore. Also here a lot of technical progress was seen and is always fascinating how much can still be made from even a lower quality piece of raw material. This has also to be one of the conclusions, that the more

lower quality (and also lower priced hides) can be converted today into a piece of leather of impressive quality. Sales were also fully satisfying and interest was again dominated by light weight material and everything suitable for side leathers, but also a follow up interest for cows was seen. So, all in all we assume, that most visitors left the show with a generally positive impression. May, be that just those who came in the hope to find more interest for European lambs were disappointed. On the news and discussion agenda frequently the FMD problem in Brazil was mentioned. All kinds of opinions were swirling around, but at the end not really anyone was really concerned about a persistent influence on the supply of hides for the global market. The normal reflex of suppliers to refrain form offers or to raise prices was not seen and quite reverse one had to have the impression, that if there was a chance for unloading some hides in substitution it was taken instead of waiting for better times to come. Here we come to another interesting result of the trade meeting. Only for light material the clients were willing to pay fractionally more for raw material while for the standard grades they are

stubbornly refusing any increase for prices at all. Insisting on price increases is cutting negotiations, while reductions are equally turned down by sellers. So, the price for hides selling predominantly in Europe did not at all yet. Interest for Asia was not seen very much. Quite reverse from the Asian customer base one gets the impression, that their business is a bit slower and European dairy cows are not anymore fully competitive what is reflected also in slower shipments and so we would believe, that the traditional ‘Asian cow’ could face some price pressure eventually. The kill: The kill is further increasing and supply is really pretty strong and good. A lot points into the direction, that this going to last for some while now. What do we expect? As already mentioned above it seem, that most hide categories are in reasonable shape and find hardly a reason move in prices. Lighter weight cows could become problematic without short term support from Asia and some people also expect that the extra heavy bulls which were one of the few categories which rose significantly so far this year might see some corrections eventually. The rest of the market seems definitely intact and still only little price fluctuation can be seriously expected.