What happened this week: A copy of the market report of last week would have done it for this one. Dairy cows remained in the focus of the  interest and in addition to further buying from the Far East also some ids form Italy were seen. The spread of bidding prices form Italy was extremely wide, from close to asking levels to bargain hunting at 5-7 % below asking levels. We have to assume, that most sellers took our position and were only willing to accept prices which were on or close to asking levels. Bid from Asia were on the same levels as last week or even a percent higher when needed. In any case the demand continued to be steady and sales are cleaning most of the production up. Not to give a wrong impression about the general activity this week. The number of inquiries was not particularly high, but all what came in was serious and was turned into a sales. This confirms, that there are tanners who are seriously in need of hides or feel it might be better to buy

now rather than later. Activity in bulls was just bits and pieces. This, however more due to the fact that the next weeks are dominated by the abattoir buying as in the South as well in the North of the country. Only after the abattoir buying the renewal of the long term contracts will take place and with very limited numbers exported these days trading is almost non existing when the European tanners are out of the market. For the buying most expect a decline to get the prices back in line with the reduced values due to the revaluation of € and the moderately eroding male hide prices over the past weeks. With no shortage of hides seen for the time being, there is a fair chance that butchers have to give in and to bring prices back into line for adequate margins. If this is not the reason one should accept an abattoir price reduction as a protection measurement against the uncertainty about the global stability. With a reasonable adjustment of prices at the abattoir however, we feel that prices have reached again a fair value level for

the time being. We must not forget, that at least prices for cows for example have already again reached the higher side of the long term trading range. Bulls are at present in the average section what is generally healthy. From he leather business in Europe one can just report, that activity is concentrating more than ever on fewer and more successful companies and demand for extra light calf and kips remains abnormally low. The kill: The kill remained low and this applies mainly for bulls. Nothing abnormal for this time of the year and any change until mid March would be a surprise. If the kill of bulls reduces any further, quantities could be too small again to meet standard needs for fresh supplies. What do we expect? The coming week(s) should be reasonably quiet. Buying will take most of the next two weeks and with almost all Asian countries on holidays also from there not too much additional activity should be expected. Selling prices should see very marginal variations with cows remaining on the firm side and bulls being now entirely steady for the moment.