中文title: “Hidenet World Reports: Argentina’s Hide Market Sinks as Demand Crumbles” date: 2026-06-28 source: https://www.leathermag.com/analysis/extracts-from-the-hidenet-world-reports-january-2025/ image_url: https://images.pexels.com/photos/4452397/pexels-photo-4452397.jpeg meta_description: “Argentina’s hide market collapsed in January 2025 as cow prices crashed from $0.08 to $0.02 per kg, exposing a fragile raw-materials supply chain.” keywords: Argentina hide market, Hidenet World Reports, raw material supply, leather industry 2025, cow hide prices, global leather trade slug: hidenet-argentina-hide-market-crash-january-2025
Hidenet World Reports: Argentina’s Hide Market Sinks as Demand Crumbles
The Argentine hide market opened 2025 in a mood that can only be described as bruised. According to the January 2025 edition of the Hidenet World Reports, the once-buoyant South American supplier watched prices collapse on weak demand and reluctant buyers, dragging an entire segment of the global raw-materials supply chain into a corner.
The numbers behind the slide
In raw, transactional terms, the picture is stark. Cow prices fell from roughly $0.08 per kilogram to a punishing $0.02 per kilogram, while steer prices eased from $0.36 to $0.33 per kilogram. On their own, these are percentage points on a spreadsheet. In the real world, they are the difference between a hide making it onto a pallet or being discarded at the abattoir gate.
The drivers, Hidenet notes, are not mysterious. Global hide demand has softened as footwear and upholstery brands recalibrate orders, while tightening environmental and traceability rules have made some buyers more selective about where their raw material originates. Argentina, exposed and dependent on commodity flows, has been on the receiving end.
Why Argentina matters to global leather
Argentina sits in the top tier of global hide and skin exporters. When its market contracts this sharply, the ripple effect is felt across tanneries in Italy, Vietnam, China, and Mexico that depend on South American wet-blue and crust supply. A $0.06 collapse in cow pricing at origin does not simply stay in Buenos Aires; it cascades into the cost models of finished leather buyers worldwide.
For tanners operating on thin margins, that means renegotiating supply contracts, deferring capital investment, and in some cases, switching to alternative origins such as the United States, Brazil, or European collection schemes. For brands, it raises uncomfortable questions about how to plan a sourcing strategy when the underlying commodity behaves like a mood ring.
A pattern, not a one-off
The Hidenet report frames January’s weakness as part of a broader narrative: a raw-materials market that has lost its floor. Steer prices are down. Cow prices are down. Demand is patchy. Offers are scarce. The report uses the word “volatility” repeatedly, but the direction of travel has been consistent.
This is the part that should keep leather executives awake at night. Volatility is manageable when it cuts both ways. A market that only seems to fall is not volatility at all — it is structural pressure.
What to watch next
Three indicators will determine whether January was the bottom or just a waypoint. First, Chinese buying activity as Lunar New Year inventories are replenished. Second, the trajectory of Brazilian and US cattle slaughter, which sets the global price ceiling. Third, the speed at which European tanneries reopen contract negotiations on price.
For now, the verdict from Hidenet is sober. Argentina’s hide market is not in free fall, but it has lost the buoyancy that defined the post-pandemic recovery. Anyone building a 2025 sourcing plan around South American origin needs to underwrite that plan with contingency supply, not hope.
The takeaway
A cow hide selling for two cents a kilogram is not just a data point. It is a signal that somewhere up the value chain, demand and supply have stopped talking to each other. Until they start again, expect thinner margins, harder contract talks, and a leather industry that learns once more that the only thing more expensive than expensive raw material is unreliable raw material.
Source: Hidenet World Reports – January 2025, republished via Leather International / Leather Mag.
