Salted leather and wet blue exports from the United States have lost 33% of their value and 17% of their volume on yearly base, during the first 8 months of 2019. The data was elaborated from USDA (United States Department of Agriculture), and published by USHSLA (US Hide Skin and Leather Association). The reading is confirmation that there are many uncertainties and few positive notes.
The partners
All the main partners of the United States have slowed down their purchasing. China and Hong Kong (alone worth over half of US foreign revenue) dropped to 270.5 million USD (-35%). Export toward Italy, the biggest client in the European Union, isn’t going much better, decreased by 6% in volume and 37% in value. Joining the group are buyers from the Americas and Asia, such as Mexico, South Korea and Japan.
The positive (yet tiny) note
While the general result for the USA is of a strong decrease, US-based operators can be happy to have strengthened new commercial channels towards Ethiopia, Dominican Republic andGhana. The trend for those three countries is of triple-digit growth for both volumes and value.
