The Wild Fur MarkeT and Making inForMed decisions Moving ForWard in 2020. The Global fur market is always set at the International Auctions. In the world of Ranch mink that means Kopenhagen Fur Centre in Denmark and Saga Furs of Finland. As Fur Harvesters Auction is the last remaining Wild Fur Auction house operating on this continent on an International level the market will not be set until the conclusion of our March 24th /26th 2020 auction.
As the only Wild Fur Auction House as well being trapper owned we feel responsible to advise and caution those trappers that currently have fur on hand to seriously consider waiting for the results to come in from our March 2020 auction before making the call where to market.
Our next auction is not till May 30 to June 2nd and we are expecting strong support from both the supplier side and from the International buying community. As our last receiving dates and countless route trucks will once again be rolling in early April there is no reason to make any rush decisions.
As well to keep in mind FHA is the last remaining operation that annually funds Provincial, Territorial and State Associations as well as the Fur Institute of Canada and the International Fur Federation through percentages of fur sales. These funds are needed to keep all these organizations remaining strong in order to lobby and combat those that threaten our industry and our way of life. We believe in free enterprise and strong competition as its great for business. That’s why we spend a lot of time and money travelling the globe doing wild fur workshops and seminars all in an effort to fill our auction room with buyers to COMPETE for your hard acquired catch.
Fur harvesTers reMains deePlY coMMiTTed To The TraPPers oF norTh aMerica on all levels

I'm really not very excited about holding fur over for another year. But I guess a guy's got to try to do what he thinks is best when the time comes.

You don't read that as fur is selling too cheap in the country? Holding another year? As in you already held it one? That doesn't sound fun to me.

Im not into holding fur sell it pay bills no deep freezer fees or worries.

So their basically saying that the up coming sale Is not looking good as to prices or clearance's. So If this sale Is going to go that route why would the next sale In May be any better.

Well I guess we will just have to wait.

At least they're giving a "heads-up".

I think they are optimistic about FHA beating country prices on the next sale. They want you to hold off selling in the country and see the proof on the upcoming sale. After you see the light, ship for the next FHA sale.

Bvr I agree

I think you been in the Kool-Aid, but I admire your enthusiasm.

They don't want to pay any longer than necessary to store a bunch of low value fur that there is a limited market for. Can't say I blame them.

I for for one am very glad I am not holding any fur and it's all gone.

Alright guys our fur market overall has been treading water for a few years. There is no economic indicator anywhere that points to improvement. Every morning just listening to the ag report on the radio I hear of another harbinger of a commodity downturn. Price of oil, trade embargoes, stock market, exchange rate, corona virus in china, just heard this morning the corona virus is in Italy. A major manufactore of luxury fur garments.
Couple that with the fact that FHA is holding alot of fur from the last few years, they have not only taken on fresh goods from their past shippers, but this sale they have received even more fresh goods from past NAFA shippers. Then on top of that, they are tasked with liquidating NAFAs moth eaten presto logs.
Over the years At times Ive more than doubled
My money at FHA. There's been several years where theyve held my fur for 2-3-4 years then given it away. That being said. I do not envy the decisions the FHA management are having to make. Nor the actions they are going to have to take, to save the industry. I beleive FHA, trappers that they are, have the health and future of our industry our way of life at heart.
I interpret what they are saying is look at Kopenhagen, look at Saga, they have set the ranch fur market. Now FHA must set the wild fur market off their paramidors. Thats realality.
They are saying sell your collection in the country, dont plan on shipping to the May sale. In other words unload now or hold your own goods over. They are giving us, trappers, a heads up to not commit and ship for May until we see the results of March. I commend them for this.
I predict FHA will try to hold the line on the better fresh Lynxcats, (tough grade), muskrats, sel otter and shear able beaver. Everything else goes cheap. Then I beleive come May sale FHA will rip off the bandaid and dump any fur that has takers. They will do this to dump stale inventory, and the first step in resetting the wild fur market.
The writings been on the wall for awhile. Myself, I told my soninlaw this fall, we may not sell any cats this year, we may not sell any cats next year. We have been putting up some species in a way to appeal to craft buyers. I have kept a constant flow of pelts going to the tannery, I will offer my coyotes in a month. In a month I will have storage ready for if I don't sell them.
FHA does not want to store your fur.
Just my veiw from the hinterlands. Best of Luck.
Wayne Negus, "Hope springs eternal, in the breast of a Trapper."

Going to be tough to beat $205 from north Dakota sale on coyotes imo. Sale average pretty darn good too I believe.

I think it is going to be very difficult for any sale - FHA, Nevada. North Dakota - to exceed or equal the prices obtained at the first North Dakota sale.

I like and am impressed with the state auction sales results in the region. I don't have one very close to me. But to me they don't appear to be the best option for selling my raccoon. But I absolutely refuse to sell finished fur to anywhere that I can't see competitive buyers bidding
Loup Loup.. I like what you said

By anyone I mean groenewold or petska. LOL. I wouldn't mind selling finished fur some day to maybe a small fur buyer but not somebody who has the potential to Corner the market. And I don't have anything against petska or Grunwald personally. They're nice successful companies

Interesting take on this, but I read it exactly the opposite. It sounds to me that they are recommending do NOT sell in the county at the prices currently being offered until you see results from their March sale. You will then have the opportunity to ship for their May sale if you like what you see.

fha last recieving date was jan 19 for the march sale. you cant get fur on it now anyway. a few guys have done well at state sales so i dont expect to see a big drop in coyotes or cats. somebody is bidding and buying them. at least the stuff produced west of the mississippi and north of i40. some is cheaper than others but havnt seen a crash yet. those buyers are well aware nafa warehouse is about to be emptied at whatever is bid.

Being cyclic in nature eventually this thing will turn or go by way of the buggy whip. 101 we share interpretations. However following the Nafa debacle the nervous will be satisfied with anything. Another sign of capitulation.

I’m referring to the staple species. Coon, rats, mink and beaver.

That's exactly what I read also. Hold off selling elsewhere till you see their March results. Sounds like they are confident that they will be good.

Not everbody lives in WI. For many staple is wolverine wolf lynx and marten. Here in KS its coyotes and cats though in east ks coons can be added. Get over where MD and PA come together its fox.

Hopefull might be a better word, but they probably are confident that prices currently being paid by county buyers are well below "the market".

There was $50 difference in the average of coyotes at the January sale in ND and the MT sale a week ago. That is a 38 to 39% drop in price. They both had close to the same number of coyotes. 1300 and 1400 I feel that there will be more coyotes sold in the country in ND than will go to FHA by far. I feel the coyote market topped and is on the drop. There were a lot of heavy coyotes sold in the country at some high prices. Do you think Groney went to Canada with an order? I will bet that a lot of those coyotes have been sold to International buyers already. When you have $100+ in coyotes you don't try to stock pile them. You try to sell them every time you have enough to offer. FHA is in a very bad position at best. They have way more fur than they have ever had and the market is not shaping up. Coyotes were the only thing there was a market on and its fading.

With canada goose dropping use of real fur along with all the other problems in the world, I suspect you to be right on the coyotes.

so ND price jump was not the result of somebody trying to corner the market?

Well, I shipped all the fur I had ready (99%) by the cut off date to FHA, just gotta wait and see..

Mark, FHA is stating they will have 50,000 coyotes on this upcoming sale and will most likely have that many on the next. Do you think ND produces that many coyotes?

In reference to traditional harvest volume.

ADC, you said Canada Goose stopped using fur.
When? Where did you find this info?
Google search didn't find anything regarding this change.
Thanks

49er I'm betting most of those 50,000 coyotes came from Canada. Mid western coyotes won't measure up.

I thought they made an announcement sometime back maybe 3-4 weeks???? I don't recall if they said stopped using it or transitioning away from it, something like that. I'll see if I can find the info again.

danny clifton quite = so ND price jump was not the result of somebody trying to corner the market? The coyotes were split up between enough buyers I would say no. If it was someone trying to corner the market wouldn't one buyer stood out? The same buyers were at both sales for the most part.

There is no way ND produces 50,000. It seems like the G&F claims about half that or under half that taken a year. They get there numbers from fur buyer reports, WS numbers and questioners they send out. Our season is open year around. So there are off season coyotes killed too. I feel that number is way high too based on what NAFA pick up. We never had a FHA pick up until this year and I don't think they picked up much fur for the march sale. It wasn't listed until close to the cut off and I don't think many people knew it had started.

CG put out that climate change thing about Katie Upton was going to be spokes person .
That CG will be drifting away from natural fur trim .
It was on quarterly report. If remember right

You guys that have fur to sell don't about anything, I already sold my small amount of fur and I'm ALWAYS on the wrong side of any market.Lol

I think the hesitation about the March sale could be due to the C. virus and travel from China limiting potential buyers, not that there is less demand.
There will probably be a good amount of pent-up demand for fur as well as a lot of other goods once this virus thing is under control.

Thank's FHA for your suggested strategery, I figured this strategery out before I set the first trap. You also may get some cherry picked fur, based on your performance in March. Sell too cheap and you get another goose egg. Good Luck!

P.S. Don't dilly dally on posting the Sold Catalog after the March sale! I'm going to need that.

Sounds sensible to me

Thanks. I knew I had heard it somewhere.

This is what I get from it as well

^^^

From my understanding, there aren't many country fur-buyers in Canada. They had NAFA and FHA. Now they have FHA. So most Canadian trappers ship already. So it doesn't seem they're really addressing Canadians as much as they are American trappers. I'm betting Groeny isn't the only American country buyer with a direct line to an Asian market or other markets abroad. These guys are coming up with contingency plans, and FHA hasn't laid out fur to look at yet. Why would FHA announce don't sell your fur until our trucks get around to you again? It's already understood by those who are going to ship to FHA that they will be running their trucks on certain dates for pick-up. That seems to mean they're talking to those who have options, like American trappers do. Canada, I'm not so sure about. Ship to NAFA, ship to FHA is what Canadians generally posted about. Now, they have the Groeny option. What's he doing up there? Shaking up the market? Giving those Canucks a chance to get paid now? It's a carefully constructed announcement by FHA, whatever it means, and whoever they're talkin' to.

Groeny and a couple other buyers are buying a pile of coyotes from guys that normally ship and paying top dollar.

Those who are dealing with marketing fur to foreign outlets on a daily basis set the market, not an auction house holding a few sales annually.

If the Chinese aren't willing to pay more than say $14 for a 3X clear raccoon in the country, why in God's name would they pay more for that same coon at auction? Fact is they won't!

I'm guessing Groenewold's are looking to buy every coon and rat they can at the March FH sale, and will probably pay less than they are right now in the country.

The Chinese aren't buying raccoon in the country, they are buying coon from a buyer that buys in the country. If Groenwold is paying $14 for a 3X coon you know he is not selling it for $14.

I look at it this way. Groeny made deal to sell coon cheap. That drags down the coon market. How does that benefit " for profit trappers" if Groeny will sell coon below most trappers cost of production?

Groeny isn't paying $14 for 3X, and that coon is purchased from here in the country by the Chinese, unless they are purchasing dressed goods.

They sell coon for the maximum amount the buyer will pay, which are the Chinese for the most part. They wouldn't turn much of a profit by selling them too cheap.

Isn't that what an auction house does? Sell for the maximum the buyers will pay.

Let's wait and see if the March sale in North Dakota has a repeat performance. And, my interpretation of FHA's letter to the trade, was to infer that the 2nd sale might be a much better time to sell. Corona Virus fears will likely settle with warming weather, just like Sars in 2002. This probably would result in a smoother cash transition to North America as Asian buyers have a lot on their plate at the moment trying to decipher retail sales results and market demand. This, as well as European and North Americans, although not as much concern here.

Who is gronewald competition?

The timing of the March sale in North Dakota could be a factor, March 20-21. Just before the FHA sale and right in the middle of inspection in Toronto. In my opinion, there will be cautious buyers in North Dakota. I could be wrong but I am entitled to my opinion.

Zander and sons, Weibke's, Petska, state auctions, just to name a few.

Inadequate competition has farther set back this buyers market. If groeny sets the market he’s doing a poor job of it. Then again what incentive does he have to overpay?

Why would any business over pay? When I go to the sale barn to purchase live stock, I sure don't go with the idea of over paying!

China's unwillingness to pay more is some how Groeny's fault? What they are willing to pay sets the market. Groeny, and other large buyers, deal with them day in, and day out.

I just got off the phone to Marc Downey, asking about this. I fielded quite a few calls on the way to a doc appointment this morning. Marc said, "I put that out because many in western Canada were selling to runaround buyers and the market has not been set yet at the international auction". He added, "we expect a large attendence at our auction. Those that can't come because of illness can readily buy electronically, or through a broker".

I believe it was directed to a lesser degree to those that still had fur in the lower 48, and were getting worried because of the rumors.

Thanks for the explanation Lee.

Absolutely, You could say what incentive does he have to pay more than he has to. Not over pay. We as trappers are payed just enough so we are dumb enough to produce product for him. Only time we have any window of decent prices is during skin shortages. Maybe with ranch mink numbers falling tremendously we could see a year or two of good prices soon if China doesn’t implode

Ok overpay is the wrong word. Supply and Competition sets the market. Groeny makes money. Probably prefers cheap prices to keep costs down and reduce risk. Like I said buyers market and the only way that’s gonna change is thru auction. See auction makes money by forcing prices up.

Best wishes FHA. Fingers crossed cuz I don’t think anybody else will do it for us.

Right. Because what would be scary is if Grunwald was so big that the Chinese can get the vast majority of their needs filled through one supplier. As a business person groenewold only needs to make a certain amount of profit margin. Who cares what the Chinese pay as long as he makes his desired profit margin.

Ya think pushing coon as coat liners, will improve the price of coon? It will move more low price coon. Who does that benefit?

I can agree with you on that Dirt, I certainly hope coat liners are not the future of the fur market.

Groeny has got a lot of the sask coyotes that normally would have been shipped this year

I am bullish on the future of the fur trade. As long as the Chinese economy doesn’t crash I think we could see better prices for the short furred animals do to the extreme pelt outs of many mink ranches around the world. Better prices could come as early as next year.

As far as Groenewalds setting the market I would say he does not. They buy on speculation and averages.

one thing we all should agree upon... this is a very poorly written press release!!! hahahahahah.... some of us think it says "wait... our sale is gonna be good, don't sell in the country for the current prices... that's too cheap"
others read " the market is dropping"...
one thing we can all probably agree on is this letter is poorly versed.

If the market is set according to buyers and sellers then GFW is at the top of the list

I will never sell to fha again...country buyers will get the first option

Jesh, seems if everyone waited for March 30th, it might prove who’s right or wrong ???

Not really, since the fate of the fur market at the end of March will have a lot more to do with the world economy at that time (Carona Virus effects) than any difference between selling in the county or international auction.

Mink99, most of the fur they buy are already sold. That does not classify as speculation.

Somebody must know. Dave?. What percentage of all the raccoon or how many, are marketed or bought and sold by groenewold?

Hard to say. Depends on the year. I know they bought most of NAFA''s coon last summer, and have been buying large quantities at auction for many years now. They absolutely dominate the rat market though.

Ya the last sale I went to I saw Guy rubbing elbows with some foreign type fellas. Never seen him raise his hand tho...

you can make up any story you want to about groenys unlike the auctions theres no prices told no numbers told what percent of goods they buy what they turn down which if that's how they want to operate that's fine but trappers that think they know everything about how they operate have no idea and tell the same stories year after year that have no clue what their talking about just trying to impress someone that will listen to them how many coon did they buy at nafa how many rats was caught in the usa and Canada last year how many of those ended up at groenys

I heard the same thing, they go to the international auctions looking for buyers not fur.

If what is stated is true that GFW dominates the rat market and is controlling the coon market they are the Amazon of wild fur and all these discussions are merely coffee table discussions as they change nothing and most of our fur somehow gets funneled through a very narrow funnel. If one has the mindset and equity this is not a bad time to grab hold of a huge portion of a or the market as the cost of buying and moving fur is probably at a 20 year low.
If securing a market is your goal a dollar today will do more than twice what it did 6-7 years ago. Margins have to get much larger to make money on $3 rats and $9 coons but then in many ways risks have dropped significantly as well. If this virus curbs China buying for say another season or two there will be a whole lot more lower quality ranch mink being pelted out.

Bryce

Buyer records are available. You don't raise your hand when you buy PT. I've personally witnessed semi loads of fur being un loaded at their facility bought at NAFA. Why this is so un believable by some is irrational, and makes no sense? You can believe the earth is flat if you want, matters not to me, but it still doesn't mean your right.

He and I are more alike then I thought. We both shop the bargain cave.

We see soon what happen fha. Could be not until may sale, that coon sell good though