There are more options to sell fur than FHA and GFW. There are other major buyers like Zander and Weibke and Petska - to name a few. They have direct overseas markets. You also have other country dealers with direct markets. Plus you’ve got mom and pop buyers that buy for the craft tourist market. And then there is the taxidermy market.

Individually those small buyers aren’t much but as a group overall they are a significant market. Not as big as NAFA and they certainly can’t consume half a million coon a year. But it all ads up.

Plus buyers such as Canada Goose and the Asian buyers are developing more and more contacts in the country.

It might be a rough couple of years but with low fur prices, a lot of guys are t trapping or have scaled back their lines, so that will help too. Not as much fur being produced.

I think NAFA will weather this storm. Within 5 years a lot of folks that are saying “never again” will be back to shipping, especially IF the market improves.

Shhhhhh!

Why are you Shhhhhing me??

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I’ve stated mine.

Serious question, where do you think all the money went? In the good years they had to generate gross profits of 100’s of millions, just this year gross had to have been north of $25 million. No way thier overhead is that high what happened? Herman steal it all

Traveling around the world promoting fur (both wild and ranch).

Costs of putting on a sale - more than a lot of folks think.

Production loans to mink ranchers that they can’t pay back due to low mink prices.

High salaries for the upper level folks.

Facilities in places other than Toronto - Poland. Winnipeg. Wisconsin. To name a few.

I don’t believe any one stole any money.

Do we want every trapper moving into our markets? Let them believe Auctions ( PT sellers) and Groeny are the end all be all.

Nafa was acting like a bank. Giving 5% interest in deferred money from ranchers and anyone else that could afford to leave money there. That to me is a problem. I believe there was some mismanagement there. Rancher loans that couldn't be paid back has been devastating. Nafa owes quite a few mink ranchers deferred money. Some ranchers are owed millions.

Maybe you guys should go after the owners. That would be you.

Party is over for the honchos of nafa. And wissmiss nailed it with crappy loans to ranchers. Saw it comong years ago.

NAFA provides or did provide a lot of services for members and sellers. For Wild Fur there was reduced commission costs for those that become wild fur shippers. We also had many routes and drop off places that we did not pay for directly. Those services were for wild fur and paid for on commissions. NAFA typically does not own fur and thus they only have margins to earn revenues to cover expenses. Margin revenues are determined by higher prices and greater volumes and not on how much one profits from fur bought versus fur value sold.

Also if significant production and or advance loans were issued to ranch owners that ties up a lot of capital and thus liquidity becomes a real issue. Also with outstanding loans to ranchers who know have fewer lower value animals, repayment may be difficult at best. This situation also can create a more cumbersome route to file for say a Chapter 11 etc. to reorganize as there are potentially many producers in the mix, many of who are probably needed to right the balance sheet down the road.
I will continue to ship a majority of my fur to them, but my amounts are not big by any means.
Bryce

I was told by NAFA today when I asked them that same question that the ranchers are the board at NAFA and they make the calls. He also stated that the ranchers voted themselves HUGE rebates. Might be a whole lot more there to look at.

I won't have to worry about it again. I also will be calling the State Attorney General to see how he thinks writing a check on a non existing account helps the lives of Iowans and if they should look into this. LLL

They must have thought the big ranch mink money would never end

i have good country avenues and auction possibilities here along with being able to jump the border to ny and catch groeny.i've been blessed to work in the put up business for a great group of guys for 30 yrs and never had a thought about where my fur was going.

this year i had planned to learn some things and send half to nafa and half to fha.be a fool to go with those plans now.

wish them the best but must admit somethin sure aint hoyle.

Wait ?

Do you mean to tell me that the mink ranchers are in charge

and we members of the WFSC are not actually part owners

of NAFA like they have been telling us all these years ?

Huh,

Who'd a thunk it ?

w

next thing ya know they;ll be chargin for dvd's

I have not been able to get on to my account for the last 6 months,

since the login process keeps rejecting my user name and password.

Could be that Herman Jansen deleted my account

before jumping ship with his "Golden Parachute".

I think that's where the money went.

Sincerely hope It works out for everyone holding a rubber check

and waiting to get payed AND reimbursed for bad check charges plus interest.

w

And magazine subscriptions that I didn't order.

Fur market tanked in the 80’s, one of the auction houses went under. Who was it??

has any one talked to other buyers groeny says he don't know what hes going to have for prices yet wissmiss do you know of any new direct buyers out there the ones you named have been in business for years if nafa owes mink ranchers a lot of money you think their going to ship through them you think any body that catches many furs is going to ship very many through them there could be a lot of fur trying to find a home this year its all been down hill when nafa started several years ago selling furs for what ever they could get whether than holding them for better prices like they did for years now bad checks on top of it

Kind of like the old VW commercial "how does the plow truck driver get to the plow truck?" Unless you have direct sales to end users (or the guy you are selling to does) it ultimately ends up at auction.