It’s still too early to look back on one of the most exciting and challenging years. But it’s only another two or three weeks until most of the tanneries in Europe close. From what we know, it is going to be more than two weeks before they reopen.
Lockdown restrictions in Germany have been extended, which means that most likely beef consump-tion is going to be affected as well. Also the Christmas season, including New Year’s Eve parties, will be different this year and for those are used to spending this period with big family gatherings or a large group of friends, it means cutting down. These changes will certainly have some kind of effect on food consumption.

Christmas shopping will most likely see a different pattern too, with further limitations on shops and shopping malls.

 There are plenty of theories, but not really much knowledge about how this is going to reflect on retail results. Online platforms are doing their utmost to grab as much as they can. Black Friday has become a Black Friday Week and it is easy to form the impression that, in fact, Black Fri-day really lasts for about two months.

For the hide and skin business we are finding pretty much what we expected. In many cases in Eu-rope, suppliers and customers will soon seek to buy material to try to cover the first weeks of January. There was quite a bit of the excitement a few weeks ago, but it has been fading. People are beginning to realise that hide consumption is going to be reduced during the holidays. How long demand from Asia will compensate for this remains unknown. We tend to believe that most players have their books in order for weeks ahead, enough to take them up to the end of January.

Chinese buyers continue to sniff around and, at least in our case, the focus has shifted a little bit from cow hides to the male hides. Dairy cow buyers feel that the price-ceiling has been reached and, for the moment, they want to hold back and see how sellers feel a few weeks from now. Buyers of male hides are beginning to realise that European hides look attractive versus their US counterparts and could be worth a try. They are very cautious, full of questions and very price sensitive too, because they want to limit risk as much as they can.

The biggest focus this week was however on logistics. Shipping has become a real challenge, putting a lot of question-marks on the work and plans of shipping lines. They are playing with capacity and products and the surcharges they implement look a bit ridiculous in view of the situation. However, this is what we have to deal with in the Christmas season and the break in China for Chinese New Year (February 12) will not make it any easier.

Sales this week were a bit spotty and coincidental. However, with several trials being booked which needed price concessions, a reasonable number in aggregate has been achieved. We would call the prices for females steady; the prices for lighter-weight males are below expectations, with the heavy end in full balance as far as price, supply and demand are concerned.

The kill: The kill continues to be regular. The numbers are not setting any records, but continue to remain at seasonal levels. Beef demand in the supermarkets remains reasonable, compensating for some of the missing volumes from restaurants and catering.

What we expect: The focus is now on the December abattoir prices and if everyone is reasonable we should not see any major changes. 

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