NAFA Cancels January Sale

This week, North American Fur Auctions announced that it is canceling its January fur sale. The January sale is the first major auction of the year, and fur buyers and trappers from around the world look to this auction to help define the fur market for the rest of the season.
Here’s NAFA’s official announcement:

December 14, 2009
IMPORTANT NOTICE TO ALL NAFA WILD FUR SHIPPERS

Due to the limited quantities of wild fur expected for our January 11, 2010 auction, NAFA decided today to cancel this auction sale.
For selected articles normally made available in January, interested buyers can contact our Private Treaty Department after January 9, 2010.
All goods received from our wild fur consignors for January and not sold by Private Treaty will be combined with the much larger quantities expected to be received for our March 12–18, 2010 auction, which is guaranteed to attract all the major world fur buyers. We will offer a complete catalogue of well matched lots in large volumes in March. This is what is required to attract the demand and attention we need to start the season.
NAFA is the dominant marketer of Wild Fur, a distinction we take very seriously, and we are determined to re-establish a viable and profitable market in today’s fur consuming areas such as China and Russia.
We feel that some improvements due to our marketing efforts will be seen in our March Auction.

So what does this mean for the future of wild fur this season?  I’m not completely sure.  For one thing, it means that trappers haven’t been sending furs to NAFA.  These historically low quantities mean that:  1) many trappers aren’t getting out and trapping due to an expectation of very low fur prices, and 2) those who are catching fur are holding on to it, waiting for fur prices to rise again.

Given the circumstances, it doesn’t look good for fur prices this winter, but there is still a lot of uncertainty in the air.  Who knows what will happen in March?  Historically, NAFA’s March sale has really been the big one, but the January sale is usually a good indicator of how the March sale will turn out.

As far as I know, FHA (Fur Harvesters Auctions, NAFA’s only close competition) has not canceled their fur sale, so perhaps we can get a better indication of fur prices based on their results.  Who knows, FHA shippers might have better luck with higher fur quantities and more buyers present due to the canceled NAFA sale.

I do know one thing, it’s going to be interesting to see what happens at the FHA sale.  I’m not very optimistic about the fur market right now, but you never know what’s going to happen in the coming months.

The fur market has experienced some really tough times lately, and I’m not sure that we’ve seen the worst of it.  But if trappers can weather this storm, things will recover.  There will always be a demand for wild fur.