The term speculation comes to mind.

“This transaction is indicative of the need for volume for many co-op and agriculture processors in an increasingly competitive and capital-intensive environment,” added Scott Porter, a Vice President at Cascadia. “The combined ALC and NAFA entity will greatly benefit all member patrons through operating synergies, stronger pricing power, and increased capital.”

Nimzy I found a clue, but I can't decode it.

Call in Scully and her partner to crack that code.

Look into the ag industry and see how their co-ops fare. They are great on the smaller scale (20-30 producers) but they all fail when they start hiring ceo's and marketing people.

Because you sell them cheap. Raise your prices.

Please!

I don't care what nafa does, I am done with them. I will sell local and if a check bounces I can drive there and figure it out. I am sure the amount of the I send in won't hurt them a bit but if everyone would do it they might take notice.

Hopefully this will be self heeling as the supply chain collapses.
Mink 99 am I getting ahead of reality here?

Prices will eventually go up some. But until ranch mink coat styles return and the huge storage glut are healed poor prices will continue.

Tried to call nafa to release some fur. If course they won't answer the phone. For the definition of pathetic nafa must have there picture there.

well,thats interesting.

I'm thinking of two rather successful big named ag co-ops in the US and what I've seen is where they face the most difficulty centers around controlling their members. Granted both are relatively small groups---in the 500-1500 member range so its still workable BUT to make such a cooperative work the members must actually cooperate and that means tracking supply of raw product to correspond with current market demand. And some producers have a hard time dealing with being told what they will produce as that's a touch counter to the normal mentality in the country overall and even more so within agriculture. And the model is still like a commodity driven market that somewhat pushes the big members to become bigger while squeezing out some of the little producers. I dont know anything about the ranch mink producers but given the glut of supply on the market I can speculate that there has been little attempt and/or success in matching supply to meet current demands. And that failure to step out of the commodity driven model is the common theme in most of the less than successful co-ops.

The second thing that contributes to some co-ops success is their ability to exert a level of control over the supply chain within their markets. Meaning they either have manufacturing facilities and/or contractual arrangement to complete a final product and also get it into the market place. Not sure if that is even possible with a garment industry that might have multitude of players making end products.

The third thing that many co-ops try is to impact demand. The more successful co-ops have intense market driven R&D people and extraordinary marketing---to the point of reaching brand name household recognition. Successfully driving up demand either allows increased production or higher returns. We've seen NAFA try and impact this area with campaigns towards end users of ranch and wild fur. Problem is you need to put a number of the above strategies into play to make a significant impact and become a great coop. One alone likely does you little good. The fashion industry is a fickle beast; at some point maybe ranch fur becomes popular in coats again or maybe not. Historically the fur market has bounced around. But I'm concerned whether even the best strategies will long term move both ranch/wild fur forward given the shifting social values in Europe and now in US. Possible that we are in a long term downward spiral with no safety net in sight.

Too general of a statement to state that large ag coops fail. 77% of the milk in the USA is marketed through coops and some with 5,000 members. Sure there are examples of failures but for the most part most small coops merge or go by the wayside when you are dealing with commercial, conventional commodity production. Now with some specialty type crops or situations they may work well as there are not enough members to get large, which is one reason they are fragile. You lose two to five members out of 30 and the whole system can have potential issues and concerns.

Bryce

How are they storing 100 to 150 million ranch mink skins? I hope this ain't true. Good thing I started my fur sewing business back in the 90's. It seems to get stronger every year.

It does appear that trapper coops( FHA) are more resilient than farmer coops (ALC and NAFA).

Didn't the former first FHA go bankrupt? And that was strictly wild fur?

kieran spelling variations

Them critters at NAFA dun stole my pelts.....

Apparently a lesson was learned.

and NAFA should of payed attention too.

People laughed at me 4-5 years ago when I claimed it wasn't the weather in Russia or the trouble with dying pelts, but too many ranch furs destroying the market.

Guess they destroyed more than the market.