We readily admit that today’s date was very tempting to add a little joke or two to this market report. However, the current situation does not seem to be conducive to jokes and so we will have to wait until the next time April 1st falls on a Friday. It is not so often that the hide market is very impressed by general global events. However, this is certainly not the case now and both the ongoing war in Ukraine, the resulting price increases and the spread of the coronavirus in China have, in our opinion, left deep scars. This is perhaps why the APLF trade fair in Dubai came at the right time to provide many with the excuse to exercise a great deal of restraint this week. The fair in Dubai can by no means compete with the fair in Hong Kong, but it was nevertheless an opportunity to swap the computer monitor with the real face again after a long time. Among the exhibitors, the large pavilions of the various countries, India, Pakistan, France, Italy and Brazil were dominant. From the rest of the world, a few other exhibitors were lost here and there, who certainly wanted to test the location once, or expected possible new contacts from the expected visitors from the region. Among the visitors from the raw materials sector, it was particularly noticeable that the average age was relatively high. To put it another way, the hard-core ‚old school‘ representatives are always there and don’t let anything or anyone stop them from possibly missing out on something. Certainly those who stayed at home didn’t miss out on any big deals. Possibly, however, a good opportunity to meet and exchange again with many different, old and new representatives of the leather industry supply chain. Certainly only a few were disappointed and if it only served to confirm possible preconceived

ideas. One can literally feel the struggle everywhere to find the right assessments and make the right decisions for the coming months. It has certainly not happened very often that the conditions for the coming seasons were as different as those with which the current cycle is coming to an end. There is no doubt that opinions still diverge quite widely. There is no getting around the fact that many opinions are not based on the facts, but essentially arise from one’s own problems, emotions and the necessary hopes that result from them. Those who want to see it positively, see leather from new market opportunities due to the increased prices for alternative materials and those who want to see it negatively, fear that inflation and the general political uncertainty will weigh heavily on the market opportunities for leather and the products made from it. On the business side, we honestly have very little to report. The lockdown situation in China is weighing heavily and we really could not see any serious interest in goods from this big market during the week. In Europe, where sales tend to be concentrated on fixed programmes and time periods, there was not much to discuss at the moment either and it is easy to just mention that there was not even the usual random business this week. Thus – due to a lack of sales activity – there are also no real price changes to report and everyone may draw their own conclusions from the situation itself.

The kill

There is also nothing really new to report about beef production. The kill is stable, not falling further and thus stagnating at the low level. At the moment there is really no imagination what could change this situation, at least until Easter.