It seems the media is beginning to catch on to the news of last year’s high fur prices, with a couple of recent stories on the fur market’s impact on trappers.
Here’s part of a story from Montana:
The demand for fur is on the rise and prices are booming, providing a windfall to Montana trappers who say their industry has hit a 30-year high.
And market indicators suggest the demand – and the prices that follow – will continue to increase as buyers in China, Russia and Korea watch their incomes grow.
“Trappers are seeing an increase in their paychecks in the state of Montana,” said Toby Walrath, president of the Montana Trappers Association. “The market is strong and improving. It’s a good time to be a trapper right now.”
Montana trappers received $2.7 million in income in 2012 from the sale of raw fur, according to the Montana Trappers Association. This year’s state auction also paid out $230,000 for the pelts of prized species, including those monitored by state game officials.
Walrath, who heads the state organization from his Corvallis home, said the money brought in by trappers circulates beyond the trapping community. It extends to taxidermists, in-state furriers, hotels and sporting good stores, such as Wholesale Sports in Missoula, which now sells trapping supplies.
And another from Maine:
North American fur is booming.
Not in North America, necessarily, but “you can’t keep fur in stock in Russia,” says furrier Greg Tinder. “The higher the price tag you put on it, the faster it sells.”
Tinder, who left Saks Fifth Avenue to start his own label, says the East has always been a furrier’s dream — think big, plushy Soviet-era hats. But now, with Russia’s economy on the rise, there’s some new money on the block, and designers know that.
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Alan Herscovici with the Fur Council of Canada says upwardly mobile consumers in China and Korea, as well as in Russia, are driving the market.
“The fur sales that are the strongest now are not necessarily your grandmother’s old mink coat,” says Herscovici. “Rather, it’s the bunny cuffs and coyote fur ruffs that helped grow the retail fur industry to [$15.5 billion] last year — 45 percent more than sales 10 years ago.”
Ten years ago, it wasn’t very lucrative at the other end of the business, either, especially for trappers.
Maine trapper John Sewell says a coyote fur that would net $7 at auction a decade ago would sell for $50 today.
“That’s what they want for the trim trade,” he says.
What used to be a $2 muskrat is now a $12 muskrat. The marten that was worth $40 could bring almost $200 at an auction today.
With money like that, says Sewell, interest in trapping has gone up about fivefold in the past few years.
Though the market may change, it’s been a good time to be a trapper lately and more folks are definitely gaining interest.
Click the links below to read the two stories in full.
Demand for fur has market at 30-year high, Montana trappers say
Great news for you lot, I am a trapper in the UK, the last one I suppose I have red fox pelts which i can’t sell but I still trap for the love of it!
Didn’t know there were any of you trappers left over there David! Glad you’re still trapping and hope you enjoy the site.