MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Slight increase in Uruguay wool exports, with a timid comeback of China, but overall outlook remains depressive

SUL indicates that with three months left, in 2024, there seems to be a modest, very modest advancement of the market, which anyhow remains quite depressing.

In the first ten months of this year, Uruguayan exports of ovine goods reached US$ 158.2 million which is 7% below the same period last year, according to the latest figures from the Uruguayan Wool Secretariat, SUL. This is a slight improvement from the two previous months when exports were 10% and 13%, less than the same period a year ago.

SUL indicates that with three months left, as happened in 2023, there seems to be a modest, very modest advancement of the market, which anyhow remains quite depressing.

SUL export numbers collected from Uruguayan Customs stats, in the nine months, wool and byproducts reached US$ 111.3 million which represents an 11% increase over last year, in US dollars, with China taking 44% and Italy 23%. Overall greasy wool revenue grew 106% to US$ 39.7 million; scoured wool, US$ 17.2 million, up 42% and tops actually dropped 20% to US$ 44.7 million. When it comes to volume the total was 28.1 million kilograms, which compares favorably with Jan/August 2023.

Of the 14.1 million kilos of greasy wool, China took 87% and Bulgaria, 6%. Scoured wool, 7.2 million kilos, China, 59% and India, 11%, and finally tops, which was down 6%, Italy acquired 26% and Germany, 24%.

Regarding sales of ovine meat, frozen and with bone, total exports in the nine month period reached 9.6 million kilos, generating US$ 46.8 million, down 33% in volume and 32% in dollars. Brazil, China and Oman were the main markets. Boneless ovine meat had Brazil, Canada and China as the leading buyers.

It must be pointed out that in the nine months there were no live sheep o skins exports, according to the Uruguayan Customs.

Overall wool and sheep meat exports in 2023, dropped 23% compared to 2022, totaling US$ 128.5 million in wool, and a drop of 23%, while ovine meat fell 14% to US$ 90.8 million.

Looking back into the erratic Uruguay sheep industry exports, 2018 was the best year with a total of US$ 327.4 million and another real bad year, 2020 with just US$ 186.9 million.

The poor performance of the sheep industry has had a significant impact in the Uruguayan national flock that in the latest 2024 census, which showed 5.367.604 head, down 9.4% from 2023, while 21.449 is the number of farmers who still remain faithful to sheep.

The less than six million flock of this year is several times less than the 1991 census when the Uruguayan flock numbered 26 million.