http://www.nafa.ca/20861Wild Fur Update – Coyote Market Still Upbeat
December 18, 2015
All indications from retail are that sales of down filled jackets with coyote trim are positive, despite the warm weather in Europe and North America. Coyotes are still very fashionable and the much warmer than normal temperatures are not hurting the trim trade as much as they are hurting fur garment sales. China’s fur sales to date are slower than last year in the North East, although temperatures are similar to last year. To the south, Beijing has had smog alerts indicating warmer temperatures.
In our last Wild Fur Update in early November, we spoke about coyotes, female fishers and sables and we believe what we said at the time still holds true. On the raccoon front, NAFA’s promotional department’s efforts, with strong support from the Wild Fur Shippers Council, is paying off. Several of the top fashion houses are putting wild fur back on the runways, especially raccoon. We are presently negotiating several sales of better quality raccoon skins for shipment in late January. The quantities that these design houses use are not huge (5,000 to 10,000 each), but it is a very important step in the right direction. Although all raccoon prices have been adjusted as a result of the Kopenhagen September ranched mink prices, it is encouraging to see that at the new price levels the fashion trade is willing to make the first step.
In our discussions with the design houses, there is an indication of a price difference for color. For example, if a SEL Western North Central 4XL color 2-3 is $20, then your color 4 will mostly likely be $16 and your color 5 will be $14. Most of the interest from these companies is for heavier section Western types, either North Central or Northerns. These are serious inquiries that we are dealing with and in our experience, we are confident that these transactions will be concluded somewhere in the second half of January. Our hope is that the Chinese will copy these leading fashion houses so that regular skins can be sold, although at current market prices.
The latest news out of Russia is that retail is very disappointing due to money shortages and increased tensions between Russia and Turkey are not helping.
Korea is off to a good start and a few of the fashion companies are looking at increasing their wild fur purchases. This is especially important for our marten/sables and could be of help in other articles such as lynx and lynx cats.
We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all the very best for the Holiday Season and good health and prosperity for the New Year.
