Aussie farmers pay skin disposal fee

AUSTRALIAN SHEEP AND LAMB PRODUCERS HAVE been charged up to A$5 (NZ$5.38) for skin disposal as the depressed global market for leather products and low crossbred wool values limits marketing and cost-recovery options for meat processors.

Stock agents confirmed processors have been charging 50 cents to $1 for skins of no commercial value for several months, but many have levied $2–$3 in recent months and up to $5 in one case reported to Australian online sheep and wool website Sheep Central.

Some processors have tried to incorporate the unwanted skins into their internal waste management and rendering systems, but due to difficulties in breaking down skins with wool have been forced to dump them off-site.

Thomas Foods International said it will be charging $3 for skins of no commercial value.

“We have borne the cost of dumping these skins for the last six months,” TFI’s national small stock manager Paul Leonard said.

“When the market recovers, and it will at some point, then it [the disposal charge] will be withdrawn.”

Leonard said skins that still had some value included those from ‘clean’ shedding sheep with no wool, and Merinos with more than than six weeks’ wool growth.

“Merino skins with an inch or more wool are still unaffected.

“Most crossbred skins are unsaleable and the broader crossbred skins are most affected.”

Vice-president of the Australian Hide, Skin and Leather Exporters Association and lamb skin exporter Luke Kivlighon said there is no demand for crossbred lamb skins around the world.

“The only thing that is really making money are Merinos and they are going over to China and they are pulling the wool off them,” he said.

“But these open wool crossbred type lambs are the ones that are going to be worth nothing or be thrown out.”