What can one write and say in a phase in which everything is actually relatively clear in its development. The market is behaving as it often does in the spring of each year and the situation is only reinforced by the special circumstances in China and by the war in Ukraine. Infaltion comes on top. The biggest problem in this sector remains that emotions always come first and then the facts. The mood has clearly changed over the last ten days and even the last optimists who did not want to or could not see the facts have now been caught up by the events. The market in our region is also turning and prices are weakening, as was the case before in many other regions internationally. There have been good reasons for this for a long time, but when the will is opposed to the facts, it is always difficult to get through with the facts. Now psychology begins to take over and for many the emotion dominates and here it is mostly fear. Nothing special is actually happening, except that the market is reflecting the circumstances and the only question now is how strong and how long this trend will last. The only unfortunate thing is that there are still enough market participants who believe that the avalanches can be stopped with good words and outstretched arms instead of facing up to the inevitability and making the appropriate preparations for protection and the time afterwards. Even if many believe that history will not repeat itself, be somewhat sceptical about the hide market on this point. Once again, sellers are preoccupied with the big question of whether they will find enough interest and customers to buy, accept and pay for their goods in the near future. Here, too, it is widespread to think that one can achieve positives with smoke candles and ‚fake

news‘. Unlikely! The activity this week was strongly marked by the fact that a good number of suppliers from Central Europe were still quickly trying to find sales, while others had to fear that – as is so often the case – the one who comes too late will be punished. The tanners reacted relatively reservedly to this, and only those who had to plan their regular supply came up with prices at discounts to last month. However, from our point of view, much is still open, and this is of course also due to the fact that the new prices at the slaughterhouses for the month of May have not yet been finalised. The slaughterhouses are still not facing up to the market developments and for their part do not believe that looking the other way, observing carefully and still provoking with very ambitious demands will change anything about the actual situation. The fact remains that the majority of continental European hides are still overvalued and will have increasing problems finding sufficient customers as time goes on. From Asia we saw very little or no interest this week, of course also because of the holiday week and the still difficult pandemic situation in China. Business in Europe is limited to regular and recurring contracts, which have been agreed with between three and 12 % lower prices in a first step. Here, the female skins suffer more than the male skins in terms of price. However, the big deals that are due in the next few weeks will only be negotiated in earnest in the coming weeks. Overall low slaughter is still helping at the moment to keep things from getting out of hand.

The kill