Brazil: August figures augur well, but wet blue continues to dominate
10/09/2014
Between January and August 2014, Brazilian tanners shipped more than 23.5 million hides, with just over 10 million of them (42.9% in total) leaving the South American country as finished leather.
Wet blue’s share of the 23.5 million hides over the eight-month period was 49.6%, with a total of 11.1 million.
In terms of value, tanners brought in export revenues of just under $2 billion between January and August this year. This represents an increase of 24.1% compared to the same months in 2013 and of 44.6% compared to the same period in 2012.
Speaking to World Leather earlier this year, the president of the Brazilian tanning industry association (CICB), José Fernando Bello, said: “Wet blue is a commodity, although in recent times, there has been high demand for Brazilian wet blue and tanners have been able to make a good profit on it. Our project is to make finished leather and we expect Brazil’s tanneries to export more and more finished leather.”
He may take some encouragement from the fact that of the 2.9 million hides Brazilian tanners exported in the month of August alone, 46% left the country as finished leather compared to 44% wet blue.
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