Guadeloupe: hide prices increasing, but slowly
06/05/2010
The price of hides that the only abattoir in the French territory of Guadeloupe can command has increased in recent months, but is still less than half the price before the market downturn of 2008.
Guadeloupe, which comprises five Caribbean islands, is officially one of France’s overseas departments, but local hides generally have a similar market value to raw material from Central America.
The production manager at the Guadeloupe abattoir, Michel Dagonia, recently told local media that until 2008, the value of a container of hides from the facility was around EUR 9,000. At the beginning of 2010, the same quantity of similar quality raw material had a market value of only EUR 2,200. Shipments in April went for EUR 4,000, which he described as “a slight improvement”, but still less than the price before the downturn.
Hide shipments from Guadeloupe began in 1998. Until then, the system in place at the abattoir was simply to throw the raw material out. In the course of this decade, tanneries in Italy and China have become the main destinations for the material. The hides leave the territory raw as there is no tannery there.
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