World’s biggest fur auctions coming to Vantaa – Yle

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6 million mink pelts and 1 million fox furs up for sale at “the auction events of a lifetime”, as some of the world’s largest fur wholesalers join forces to try and make up for a December sales slump.
Finnish supplier Saga Furs is hosting what it bills as two of the world’s largest fur auctions this March and June, in association with two other leading wholesalers, the American Legend Cooperative and the Fur Harvesters Auction from Canada.
For the first time, the three auction houses will bring their products under one roof in Vantaa for two sales in March and June this year. The events will be almost double the scale of a normal fur auction, and are hoped to make up for a sales slump at auctions last December.
Around 13 million pelts in total will be on offer at the auctions, including fox, mink and, according to Saga Furs, “the world’s finest collection of Canadian wild fur articles”.
”Our aim is to create a one-stop concept, where the finest global players in the fur business come together under one roof in Vantaa, and all the products are sold in one place,” said Saga Furs CEO Pertti Fallenius.
The opening of the fur-selling season last December went badly for the industry, with sales down 34 million euros – almost 25% – on the year before. This year the organisers are taking no chances, seeking to attract a record 800 buyers to Vantaa.
”The price levels only become clear at each year’s auction, but I doubt they will match the peak levels of the last two years,” Fallenius said.
Fur farming directly employs some 4,000 people in Finland, with a further 13,000 employed indirectly, and the trade brings annual export profits of up to 800 million euros. However, it faces strong opposition from campaigners who question the ethics of the industry.
In 2012 a movement to ban fur farms in Finland gathered more than the 50,000 signatures needed for the issue to be debated in parliament. At the time, informal polls showed that a majority of MPs opposed the ban, however the bill was rejected by the legislature in June last year.
Sources: Yle
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