It remains difficult and perhaps even a little strange to care and worry about the market for hides and skins in these tragic times. First of all, our thoughts and wishes go out to the people who have been affected by this completely useless and brutal war of aggression and who may lose life and and their homes. Special respect goes to those who selflessly help the refugees and thus provide at least a small alleviation of the suffering. The war is affecting almost all areas of life at the moment, and the closer one lives to the events, the greater the impact. The effects are manifold and their extent cannot be estimated at this point. Immediately, it is the pictures seen and then, of course, the immediately noticeable considerable price increases for energy and food. While in 2021 it was the transport by sea that posed a major problem, it is now often the regional transport by truck that is not only becoming more expensive but also considerably more difficult. The market for hides is looking for a clear trend. At first it was the crisis reflex that quickly led to the demand for higher prices. In the meantime, the situation has calmed down considerably. The automotive industry informed about further reductions in production, besides semiconductors now also other important parts are missing, some of which are produced in Ukraine. On the other hand, there is also a lack of supplies, especially of lighter hides, from Ukraine, and this mainly affects the Italian industry. All industries in the chain from the farmer to the tanner suffer from the considerably increased costs. The more transport, the more energy, the more chemicals are needed, the more extreme and immediate the effect is and everyone is thinking about how they can find solutions and whether it is

possible to adjust existing commitments in the short term. In many cases, people think about so-called ‚emergency clauses‘. In addition to the question of increased prices, people are of course also intensively examining whether and who is directly affected in their business by the sanctions or by the acts of war. While the big names are still affected on a manageable scale, others whose core business is in Russia and the neighbouring countries are much harder hit. Manufacturers in Eastern Europe, Turkey and also in China are complaining about order cancellations and, of course, also about payment defaults, because it is hardly possible to settle invoices in the normal and direct way. Not to speak of the considerable devaluation of the rouble, of course. Fortunately, this is not yet having such a strong impact on the general market and those who have their main sales areas in Western Europe and Asia can still count on orderly business and the normal processing of current contracts at the moment. Nevertheless, it is clear that almost everyone is increasingly adopting a wait-and-see attitude, and understandably hardly thinking further than the next few weeks. The interest of customers was also rather modest this week. Of course, the fact that people want to see how the price negotiations with the slaughterhouses can be concluded for March plays a decisive role here. Under these conditions, it is probably correct to speak of a rather paralysed market with little activity and thus, officially, hardly any change in prices.

The kill

The kill remains at a low level. Prices for live cattle are high and at the moment it is rather a matter of finding a reasonable balance between cattle prices, strongly increased costs and the demand and price flexibility of the customers together with the supermarkets. This is not an easy task in the current situation and we do not expect it to change in the next week.