Italy snaps up wet-blue

Published: 12 January, 2005

As the year 2004 wound to its conclusion, the two most noteworthy events in the US hide industry were the announcement that Canadian cattle under thirty months of age could once more be allowed over the border and the fact that Italy had apparently purchased a huge quantity of wet-blue hides in the week ending December 9.

USDA have announced that Canada is now considered to be a minimal risk BSE region, the first country to be recognised as such.

If unopposed, the ruling is due to become effective from March 7, clearing the way for theresumption of exports of Canadian cattle of under thirty months to enter the US so long as they are branded and tagged correctly to indicate the place of origin.

In a bizarre ruling, beef from cattle over 30 months can also be imported but not the cattle themselves.

In just one week of the four-week period under review, according to USDA figures, Italy made a massive purchase of 219,500 wet-blue hides which was more than 75% of the week's availability. This brought the total bought by Italy for the four-week period to December 9 to 267,700, putting them firmly in pole position.

In addition, Italy also purchased 359,000lb of wet-blue splits, plus 32,300 raw hides and 95,800 calf and kip skins.

As we have come to expect, China was once more the biggest importer of raw hides from the US in the four-week period to December 9, taking 560,900 hides. Once more Korea was in second place with 401,100 followed by Taiwan 198,200. This time round, Hong Kong came in fourth with 92,100, then came Japan with 83,700, Thailand 76,000, Vietnam 52,200, Mexico 46,400, with Italy in ninth place with 32,300.

Bringing up the rear were Indonesia with 7,500, Canada 4,000 and Türkiye 2,000. As reported last month China was also said to have ordered a further 14,200 for delivery in 2005.

In addition to Italy's 95,800 calf and kip, Japan contracted for 22,700 kip, China for 5,000 calf and Hong Kong 2,500 kip.

The biggest buyer of wet-blue after Italy was Hong Kong with 52,800, followed by the Dominican Republic with 30,800. Mexico took 16,300, China 15,900, Taiwan 12,200 and Korea 12,100. Thailand purchased 10,800, followed by Japan with 3,700 and India with 2,800.

Korea was by far the biggest purchaser of wet-blue splits, taking 1,701,900lb. The next in line was China with 736,200lb, followed by Hong Kong with 516,900lb. Italy and Indonesia brought up the rear with 359,000 and 337,000 respectively.

Federally inspected slaughter figures for the week ended December 17, 2004, were 624,000, compared with 627,000 the week before. The previous year slaughter for the week amounted to 636,000.

Total for the year to date was 31,143,000 against 34,108,000 in 2003, a drop of 8.7%.

Cattle and calves on feed for slaughter in feedlots with a capacity of 1,000 head or more amounted to 11.3 million on December 1, 2004. Placements in November amounted to 1.74 million, 10% lower than in 2003 and 12% below the 2002 figure.

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