Robert Blazer

Rob Blazer has a lifetime of experience as an international trader, specializing in cattle hides and skins, at two of the three major international trading houses, Hollander and Kaufmann, and then with his own company.

Blazer was born and grew up in the Netherlands. After college and military service he became assistant export manager for the Royal Leerdam Glassworks, one of Europe’s most prestigious makers of artistic and residential glass and crystal ware. The job involved frequent intra-European travel and attendance at all the major European trade fairs.

At the age of 25 he moved to the United States and became a trader at Hollander, specializing in cattle hides and skins, the raw material for the leather industry. (Since hides are a by-product of the meat industry, supply is not governed by demand for the end product. Even low demand can make for high prices, if meat production is low. This makes for ever fluctuating market prices and continuous price negotiations. Today, approximately 85% of the total US cattle hide production is exported.) After initial training he was for the next six years in charge of European trading, requiring frequent travel to conduct business with Western European customers and Eastern European state procurement offices. He then transferred to the Netherlands from where he traveled frequently to conduct business within Europe, and occasionally to the Middle East and South America.

Ten years later, when the leather industry shifted from Europe to the Far East, Blazer became the head trader at Kaufmann Trading Company in New York. This job involved occasional travel to Europe, and regular trips to Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, which had become the major world producers of leather and leather products.

In 1991 Blazer started his own company, CAM Industries, Inc., trading in cattle hides and skins. This required the establishment and support of an extensive network of agents, worldwide, and providing them pricing and sales information on a daily basis. Contact with his agent network was mostly by email and telephone, but also required regular visits to the end-users with the agents and visits to trade shows, mostly in China (and to a lesser extent Japan, Korea and Taiwan) where leather production is now concentrated. Over the years the business relationship with most of his agents grew into close personal relationships as well.

In 2000 Robert Blazer was designated the Small Business Administration New Jersey Exporter of the Year. In 2007 CAM Industries was sold and continues its business under new management as CAM Trading Company.

Blazer is fluent in Dutch, French, German and English, and assisted by his agents can function effectively in the Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, and Korean languages.