Ukraine crisis having ‘definite effect’ on fur sale – North Bay Nugget

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Despite pandemic, 2021 sales among best ever
The conflict in Ukraine is going to have “a definite effect” on Fur Harvesters Auction Inc.’s sale now on until Monday.
Mark Downey, CEO of the only remaining wild fur auction house in North America, said Thursday as the sale opened that both Russia and Ukraine “are big takers of wild fur.
“A lot goes to Greece, Italy and Turkey,” Downey said, but “a good percentage of the garments manufactured there are sold to Ukraine and Russia.”
Ukraine, he said, is now “not in the position” to accept those garments, and Russia, “because of the sanctions, their market is pretty well cut off.”
The two countries, he said, probably take about 30 to 40 per cent of the “luxury, top-end” harvest, while China is the largest purchaser of “commercial” furs, of lower quality.
Fur Harvesters Auction has had to change things greatly over the past two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the auction again this year moving online. Some buyers from across North America were able to visit the auction barn on Bond Street to examine the pelts and furs on offer, but the days when hundreds of buyers crowded into the facility are now in abeyance.
“Fur is really touchy-feely,” Downey says. Buyers want to be able to examine the offerings in person, “kind of like buying an engagement ring. You want to be able to look at it and touch it before you buy it.
“We’re in the same boat as last year,” when only domestic buyers could visit the facility.
The fur auction had been planning a big sale in Toronto in 2020, but five days before it was to start, and while the furs were still being loaded on trucks, the first major shutdown because of COVID-19 occurred.
The organization had five days to shift gears and get the sale online – a format it has had to follow ever since. In-house experts were able to set up an online presence in those five days.
While unable to see and touch the furs personally, now buyers are offered pictures and descriptions of the lots for sale, and some video is available of some of the more specialized lots.
It is, Downey says, “a great format” for the catalogs, but he misses the interaction with the buyers from around the world coming to the city and getting together with fur auction staff and other buyers.
“The team has done a great job” with it, Downey says, working around the clock for those five days to get something that would work. There have been a few tweaks along the way, but what is now live online is basically what his team came up with.
And while the fur auction has been forced to make changes, the 2021 season, he says, was “an amazing year.
“It was much more volume” than is usually sold, he said, although the “prices were not much to write home about.”
In fact, he said, last year was probably the third or fourth best year since Fur Harvesters was established in 1991.
“Last year there were bids on everything. It was crazy.”
In this sale – there will be another in June, when he hopes the political situation stabilizes in Ukraine and COVID-19 protocols are lessened further – he is optimistic about prices and sales for sable (marten) and muskrat, but “we are not going to sell at fire sale levels. We are going to maintain the levels. We feel those are fair evaluations.”
This sale features between 60 and 70 per cent of domestic furs – furs from Canadian trappers – and about 30 to 40 per cent furs from the United States. Those ratios will be switched around for the June sale.
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