Calf hide trade fall tricky for farmers
Louis Vuitton may turn them into handbags, but New Zealand calf skins are less likely to become high fashion items as global demand for leather has fallen off.
Prices on international markets have fallen, also affecting lamb skins used for gloves and clothing. New Zealand earned $371 million from hides and skins exports for the year ending May, compared with $455m for the year before.
Southland company Slinkskins Ltd has said it will no longer pick up ‘‘slinks’’ (dead lambs) or dead calves off farms. In the case of lambs, it had a two-year backlog of skins to process and calf skin prices had fallen. The decision means farmers in Otago and Southland will have to look for another way to dispose of the animals. ’’The prices we can achieve from selling calfskins are so far below what we can produce them for that it’s a simple and unacceptable loss that we’re not prepared to take,’’ said general manager Jonny Hazlett.
While the market for lambskins was improving, Slinkskins had significant stock left over, so had mothballed collecting any from Southland farms for a year, as well as dead cows and calves.
‘‘In some areas there will be collection networks still going, in Southland there won’t be. I’m sure it’s a worry to councils,’’ Hazlett said.
Environment Southland compliance manager Simon Mapp said there were no concerns at this stage and farmers were expected to use their offal pits in a responsible manner under the rules.
Ted Holbert, from Waikato company Wallace Corporation, said lambs were easier to dispose of than cows and calves. Even so, he estimated there might be 500,000 slink lambs usually picked up in the South Island and 40,000 a year in the North Island.
Italy, China, Vietnam, Australia and India are the largest market for New Zealand hides and skins. Calfskins are converted into handbags and clothing, while about half of the world’s leather is used for shoes.