NAFA Concludes Historic Season with Strong May Sale
A record May attendance of over 700 buyers from all major markets, with China dominating, made it possible to achieve 100% clearances for nearly all articles.
The sale began with the North American sables, where we reversed recent price declines of 20% to 30% in Russia and in a subsequent auction in North America. All major markets were active in this luxurious article, resulting in much higher prices than recent sales. Fisher and otters sold in a similar fashion, again selling 100%. With the exception of larger size Eastern/North Centrals, all raccoons sold 100%. Premiums were paid for the better Western sections. “Although we could not hold the incredible price achieved in February, the results should be very pleasing to all our shippers. A record fresh quantity of 550,000 raccoon were offered in this sale. Over 300,000 muskrats sold 100% at the unbelievable, historically high price of $14.02 for the regular pelts and an overall average including lowgrades of $13.90. To the best of our knowledge this has never been achieved before”. China dominated again, as it has done all season.Lynx and lynx cats sold 100% under strong competition, with Greece dominating at very high levels and in the case of lynx, at prices higher than February. Coyotes sold 100% with the exception of some regular Eastern/North Central pelts. All Western heavy and semi-heavy sections sold exceptionally well with strong competition from the Canadian trim trade as well as Europe and China. Red foxes sold 100% with the fashion industry taking the better qualities and China dominating the semi-heavy and flatter sections.
“ In general we are very pleased with the results of our May sale, which continues to illustrate that NAFA’s worldwide promotion of wild fur is paying off for our wild fur producers. The millions of dollars that we have invested are showing up in the auction room.The changes that we have made in our sorting and presentation, making our catalogue and assortment more understandable to our foreign buyers, are having the positive impact that we expected.Although the May auction achieved a 98% turnover, we are very optimistic that the unsold goods will be sold before October, as they are all regular quality pelts from different sections, with no lowgrades or inferior quality pelts left to be sold.We would like to thank all of our wild fur producers for their loyalty and support and trust you have a good summer”.
