Cattle hides have fallen to around €17 or €18 for prime cattle and below €5 for cows. This compares with close to €70 for prime cattle hides and almost €60 for cows at the top of the market two years ago.

For sheep, it is even worse with new-season lambskin worthless and sheep or damaged pelts actually carrying a disposal charge of €1.

Hides are the raw material for the leather industry and therefore exposed to fashion trends in clothing, footwear, cars and furniture. Unfortunately, leather is out of fashion in footwear with a preference for synthetic materials at present nor is there any great demand for leather jackets.

Domestic furniture and the luxury car industry are both high-volume users of leather but, again, demand is weak. Furniture manufacture is leaning towards textile and synthetic finishes as opposed to leather, while luxury car sales have been depressed across Europe for much of the past year.