
The question is, how much will they pay?įashion trends continue to drag on the fur market. After discontinuing many fur buying routes last season due to the lack of fur sales, the company expects to resume routes and actively buy fur this coming season. Groenewold regularly runs fur buying routes across the midwestern U.S. Groenewold Fur & Wool Company, the largest private buyer of wild fur in the U.S., has close connections with the fur market in China and monitors day to day sales of fur items in numerous Chinese shops. An eventual resumption in the traditional auction format, perhaps in 2023, should help with fur prices, provided global demand for fur products recovers. With continued online auctions, fur can be sold, but buyers have less confidence in what they are buying without being able to thoroughly inspect the lots, and are often willing to pay less. Travel restrictions from the pandemic and war related sanctions have made it impossible to hold an in-person auction for international buyers to attend in Ontario. is the one remaining fur auction house in North America, and sells a large portion of the wild fur produced in the U.S. That said, trade relations have almost completely broken down between Russia and most of the Western world, making for a much more challenging environment to sell fur into.Īll of that said, there still is a market for wild fur, it’s just not what it once was, and it may be more challenging to get some furs sold at any price.įur Harvesters Auction, Inc. Despite disruptions in trade as a result of the ongoing war, the value of the Russian ruble has held up, indicating that Russia’s buying power in relation to the U.S. Similarly, Russia has been one of the largest buyers of fur globally. All of this means bad news for fur dealers in China and those who supply them. There’s also little reason to spend on fashionable clothing when folks aren’t going out and socializing like they once did. People can’t get out to shops to buy fur coats and other garments. These lockdowns grind local economies to a halt.


With the global pandemic spreading through urban centers in the country, Chinese cities have been in and out of lockdown for the past year or so. Unlike in the U.S., fur is fashionable in these places, and the economic well being of their consumers is critical in driving the market. Unlike the historic market, where a great deal of domestic production was consumed in North America, today’s market relies on buyers in China, Greece, Italy, Russia and Korea. But one thing we know for sure is that fur is in less demand than it was years ago, and most items are going to be difficult to sell for prices that most fur harvesters would consider reasonable.Īs I’ve said in the past, the modern fur market is global. These days a large percentage of the fur that’s harvested in the fall and early winter months won’t be sold until the following spring, or even summer, making it difficult to predict what will happen. But the past few years have been anything but traditional in the fur market, and uncertainty is the new name of the game.

Traditionally, it’s been common to provide a reasonably accurate picture of what the fur market is going to look like by the time fall rolls around and trapping season gets underway.
