Market Report 20.02.2026

What happened this week

As was to be expected, there was not much activity this week. No great surprise, as Carnival dominated in many parts of Europe, while China and large parts of Asia celebrated the Lunar New Year. At this point, our best wishes for a healthy and successful Year of the Horse to our readers in that part of the world! It is not very common for these two events to coincide in the same week and thus send a large part of the leather industry into a quiet phase. Those who either had to maintain a skeleton crew or were not affected by the two events therefore had enough time to focus on the results from Milan and, potentially, on other tasks than buying and selling raw material. In addition, there was plenty of time to reflect on market conditions and the outlook for the coming months. In our part of the world, many are now looking at the outcome of the efforts to sell the VION Group’s German activities. We will probably hear within the next 14 days who appears to have the best prospects of taking over parts or the whole business. As a consequence, this will likely influence the structure of Germany’s meat industry over the course of the year, and whatever implications that may have for by-products will then follow from it. Overall, there is currently at least an interesting constellation for the market as a whole. Cattle kill in Germany fell by more than 7% in 2025, while the total herd size declined by significantly smaller figures. Live cattle prices reached record highs, even if prices have eased somewhat again in recent weeks. Milk prices have also fallen again in recent months. Taken together—along with the potential reshuffling of market shares—this creates a mix that will likely have a greater impact than some currently assume. It is relatively difficult to prepare for this, but you can almost feel how certain players in the market are trying to keep every option open in every direction. In an overall rather challenging market environment, it is a complicated constellation. Beyond that, the question remains how the current price levels for higher-priced hides can be explained in substance. In addition to the spread between the lowest and the highest price, the buyer structure here and there also raises questions. Rumors of payment difficulties and delays are increasing as well, and anyone who has been around for some time is beginning to wonder whether they may yet experience a repeat of some difficult phases in the history of this business. Heightened attention therefore appears advisable. There was also the odd deal this week, although in essence these were probably little more than gap fillers. Once again, prices did not change—on the one hand because there were only a few deals that cannot really be used as a reference, and on the other hand because the prices that could motivate buyers to conclude larger contracts are simply too far apart from what the major sellers currently expect.