SANDY PARKER REPORT, VOL. 30, ISSUE 42, DEC. 25, 2006
The following extract is reproduced with permission from Sandy Parker Reports, Weekly International Fur News. Sandy Parker has been covering the fur industry for more than four decades. For most of that time he has published a weekly newsletter, detailing results of international pelt auctions, wholesale price trends, business developments and movements in the trade, as well as economic and political activities that may impact on it.
Subscribe now and receive all the latest news, either in print or electronically. Just $150 a year for 48 issues! Sandy Parker Reports, 21219 Lago Circle, Boca Raton, FL 33433; Tel: (561) 477-3764; Fax: (561) 862-7052; SParker@SandyParker.com; www.sandyparker.com
International Fur News
with Sandy Parker
2006 to finish on much stronger note
WITH THE APPROACH OF THE YEAR’S END, it is now evident that 2006 will finish on a much stronger note than the previous year, particularly in terms of skin prices, but also from a profit standpoint. To paraphrase an old adage, it’s difficult to lose money in a rising market and fur prices have been rising steadily for four consecutive years. It was too early to tell how the year’s retail volume would wind up, considering that there was still another week of important December selling, but most American retailers surveyed were confident their calendar year totals would at least equal last year’s. Reports from Western Europe were not quite as bright, but China and Russia – whose demand has been fueling the price increases – were said to be doing just fine.
ONCE AGAIN, RETAILERS’ FEARS THAT HIGHER GARMENT PRICES WOULD ENCOUNTER CONSUMER RESISTANCE have proved to have been unwarranted. That apprehension first arose three years ago, when wholesale garment prices shot up about 30%, causing retailers to pull in their horns. Although this was at least partly for budgetary reasons, they also feared their customers would balk at the increases. Since then, however, they have learned that few fur customers – unlike grocery shoppers – remember prices from one season to the next.
Their biggest problem, according to the stores, are conventional long mink coats, which traditionally have been the backbone of their business, but in recent years have become extremely weather-sensitive. Although fashion pieces and better coats above $7,000 retail have been checking out, it is the $4,000 to $6,000 range that has not been moving well. What are selling are sheared furs, including mink, beaver and shearling, mainly in jackets and short coats, which may be taken as a commentary in connection with today’s lifestyles and further explain the apparent lack of interest in full-length mink coats.
IN THIS ISSUE:
Dec. Retail Sales Called Spotty
Mink, Foxes Firm in Finland
Wild Furs Up at North Bay Sale
For extracts from back issues of Sandy Parker Reports see News Index. Subscribers can access an archive of complete issues at www.sandyparker.com.
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SANDY PARKER REPORT, VOL. 30, ISSUE 41, DEC. 18, 2006
The following extract is reproduced with permission from Sandy Parker Reports, Weekly International Fur News. Sandy Parker has been covering the fur industry for more than four decades. For most of that time he has published a weekly newsletter, detailing results of international pelt auctions, wholesale price trends, business developments and movements in the trade, as well as economic and political activities that may impact on it.
Subscribe now and receive all the latest news, either in print or electronically. Just $150 a year for 48 issues! Sandy Parker Reports, 21219 Lago Circle, Boca Raton, FL 33433; Tel: (561) 477-3764; Fax: (561) 862-7052; SParker@SandyParker.com; www.sandyparker.com
International Fur News
with Sandy Parker
Mink prices stronger at Copenhagen opener
MINK PRICES SET NEW RECORDS – in some cases with the aid of a weaker dollar – at the opening sale of the season last week at Kopenhagen Fur. Strong demand and limited supply combined to push the prices of black and mahogany males on the final day of the sale to new highs and bring firm prices for the females. Because of the weaker dollar, brown and wild-type males also brought prices slightly above September’s peaks, but the females failed to keep pace. The event drew a large crowd – about 350 – despite the small size of the offering, only 1.2 million skins, which were virtually all sold. Again, it was dominated by Hong Kong/China, with good support from Greece/Russia. Much of the buying was believed to be for immediate needs, but Hong Kong/China also was understood to be preparing sample lines for next month’s fair in Beijing and the following month in Hong Kong.
ENGLAND, WHERE THE FUR TRADE WAS ALMOST DRIVEN OUT OF BUSINESS 20 YEARS AGO, appears to be enjoying a fur renaissance. A recent flurry of newspaper articles and feature stories point to record numbers of Britons buying real fur and citing such statistics as a 30% increase in retail sales since last year to more than £500 million, which would be about $1 billion at the current rate of exchange – and which would seem to be an overstatement considering the size of that market. That market had undergone years of steady pounding by anti-fur campaigns, often violent and to the point of near-extinction. But, while the manufacturing and retail sectors were drying up, London’s skin merchants and brokers were developing a relationship with a growing fur manufacturing community in Hong Kong, then still under British rule. Those and other foreign relationships have mainly sustained the British trade since then.
IN THIS ISSUE:
Milder Temps Crimp Retail Sales
Russian, Chinese Business Active
Mink Stronger at Kopenhagen Opener
Farmed Sables Peak in Russia
New Intl. Consumer Labels Okayed
For extracts from back issues of Sandy Parker Reports see News Index. Subscribers can access an archive of complete issues at www.sandyparker.com.
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For further information contact Fur Commission USA.
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SANDY PARKER REPORT, VOL. 30, ISSUE 40, DEC. 11, 2006
The following extract is reproduced with permission from Sandy Parker Reports, Weekly International Fur News. Sandy Parker has been covering the fur industry for more than four decades. For most of that time he has published a weekly newsletter, detailing results of international pelt auctions, wholesale price trends, business developments and movements in the trade, as well as economic and political activities that may impact on it.
Subscribe now and receive all the latest news, either in print or electronically. Just $150 a year for 48 issues! Sandy Parker Reports, 21219 Lago Circle, Boca Raton, FL 33433; Tel: (561) 477-3764; Fax: (561) 862-7052; SParker@SandyParker.com; www.sandyparker.com
International Fur News
with Sandy Parker
Firm skin prices expected at Copenhagen auction
SKIN BUYERS ARRIVING IN COPENHAGEN THIS WEEK for the opening of the new auction season at Kopenhagen Fur are expecting mink prices to be at least firm to the closing levels in September. The retail season has opened strongly in China and Russia, both of which have been fueling the steep climb in skin prices for the past three years, and this is already translating into reorders at the wholesale level. But supplies of skins in manufacturers’ hands and in the open market are described as very low, which figures to turn up the pressure in the auction room. The initial offering – 1.2 million pelts – is normal for this time of the year, but is considered by some to be too small under the circumstances.
THERE HAD BEEN SOME CONCERN OVER RUSSIA’S PARTICIPATION IN THIS SALE because of customs problems that were holding up shipments, particularly from Greece. While an earlier – and much more serious – Chinese customs problem had been cleared up, the Russian government had clamped down on large shipments of fur garments that were finding their way into the country without paying duty and other taxes amounting to 50% or more ad valorem. Considering the volume of imports, the government figured it was losing millions of dollars. The immediate result was a pileup of outgoing shipments at the Thessalonika airport in Greece and of incoming goods at Moscow’s airport.
That situation now is reported to have been cleared up by a practical solution of give-and-take in which the government is willing to ‘wink’ at undervalued – but nevertheless official – customs declarations. According to trade sources, the duty on a mink coat will average about $400, which is still far less than the official rate, but more than the extra cost of shipping through the so-called ‘black’ route.
IN THIS ISSUE:
Opening Mink Prices Seen Rising
Stocks Low, Needs Called High
China, Russia Markets Active
Russian Import Problems Solved
Ebbing Dollar Seen Raising Prices
For extracts from back issues of Sandy Parker Reports see News Index. Subscribers can access an archive of complete issues at www.sandyparker.com.
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For further information contact Fur Commission USA.
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© 1998-2011 Fur Commission USA

SANDY PARKER REPORT, VOL. 30, ISSUE 39, DEC. 4, 2006
The following extract is reproduced with permission from Sandy Parker Reports, Weekly International Fur News. Sandy Parker has been covering the fur industry for more than four decades. For most of that time he has published a weekly newsletter, detailing results of international pelt auctions, wholesale price trends, business developments and movements in the trade, as well as economic and political activities that may impact on it.
Subscribe now and receive all the latest news, either in print or electronically. Just $150 a year for 48 issues! Sandy Parker Reports, 21219 Lago Circle, Boca Raton, FL 33433; Tel: (561) 477-3764; Fax: (561) 862-7052; SParker@SandyParker.com; www.sandyparker.com
International Fur News
with Sandy Parker
Strong animal terror bill signed
COMPANIES AND PEOPLE INVOLVED IN OR ASSOCIATED WITH ANIMAL-RELATED ENTERPRISES are now assured of greater protection against violence, threats or harassment. New legislation known as the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) was signed into law last week. It expands criminal prohibitions against the use of force, violence and threats involving animal enterprises and increases penalties for violations of those prohibitions. It is the strongest legislation yet to protect animal-related businesses by broadening the powers of the Justice Dept. to combat eco-terrorism. It also expands the scope of existing laws to include fur retailers; addresses the intimidation of secondary and tertiary targets; further increases the monetary penalties and prison terms, and provides other prosecutorial tools.
In addition, it expands the definition of economic damage to include loss of property, the costs incurred because of lost profits or a lost experiment. It also includes a definition of the term “economic disruption” to mean losses or increased costs resulting from threats, acts of violence, property damage, trespass, harassment, or intimidation against a person or entity because of their relationship with an animal enterprise.
According to Teresa Platt of Fur Commission USA, AETA also pulls in the federal government to work with local authorities in their investigations and prosecutions. It also gives the courts stronger sentencing guidelines than were available at the state level, she points out, adding “it will be a much more sensible tool for prosecution.”
The new law, FCUSA feels, should deter a segment of the eco-terror underground. “These will be rewarded by sentences matching their criminal careers,” Platt notes. “AETA tailors the jail time and penalties to the crimes and is no longer offering criminals just a slap on the hand and a warning. AETA states that our free society will not accept eco-vigilantes terrorizing people into silence and to abandon their work and careers.”
IN THIS ISSUE:
November Sales Disappointing
Traffic Wilted by Mild Weather
Anti-Fur Demos Smaller, Ignored
Strong Animal Terror Bill Signed
Consumer Confidence Slips Again
For extracts from back issues of Sandy Parker Reports see News Index. Subscribers can access an archive of complete issues at www.sandyparker.com.
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For further information contact Fur Commission USA.
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