Fur market for Nunavut, Nunavik harvesters won’t rebound soon

A polar bear skin dries in the Iqaluit sun. A decline in the global fur market has meant a 30 to 40 per cent drop in prices for many Nunavik and Nunavut-harvested pelts at auction. (FILE PHOTO)

A steady decline in the global fur market is inflicting pain on harvesters in Nunavik and Nunavut, who are selling fewer pelts through government-administered programs.

Other pelts have been sitting in a southern auction house for years now, and may continue to do so for some time.

“This is a market that is not going to rebound very quickly,” said Howard Noseworthy of Fur Harvesters auction house in North Bay, Ont., to which Nunavik and Nunavut send most of their furs.

“Certainly it’s not going to happen this year, and expectations are another year or two before we start to see major improvements.”

The decline has meant a 30 to 40 per cent drop in prices for many pelts at auction.

The global fur market revolves around ranched mink — it accounts for about 80 per cent of the market, Noseworthy estimated, followed by farmed fox at 15 to 20 per cent.

Wild fur might makes up five to 10 per cent of the market.

Three years ago, farmed mink was selling at record prices, Noseworthy said, encouraging the industry to produce more and more, until eventually there was over-production.

It came at a bad time, when the market’s major buyers, China and Russia, struggled with an economic downturn.

“We’re not immune to that,” Noseworthy said. “When the farmed [mink] prices fell, wild fur followed.”

Through the Government of Nunavut’s Fur Pricing program, the North Bay auction house takes in ring seals, Arctic foxes, wolves, seals and polar bears from across the territory.

In Nunavik, the Kativik Regional Government’s hunter support program sells fox, otter, marten, beaver and seal to fur harvesters.

“Although the prices for the fur haven’t been good for the past year, the [hunter support programs] still pay the same rate when they buy,” said Betsy Berthe, a hunter support coordinator at the KRG, “since a lot of work goes into hunting for them.”

In Nunavik, the biggest sellers include red fox and martin. Since prices have dropped, Nunavimmiut hunters aren’t selling any polar bear pelts under eight feet in length.

In Nunavut, Hudson Bay MLA Alan Rumbolt recently told the legislative assembly that hunters in his home community of Sanikiluaq are concerned that locally-harvested polar bear pelts have been sitting in storage in North Bay for so long they’ve begun to discolour.

It’s true the auction house is sitting in hundreds of polar bear pelts that it can’t sell, but Noseworthy said there isn’t any issue that the furs are deteriorating — at least not for now.

The polar bear pelts are kept in cold storage, where temperature and humidity are controlled, Noseworthy explained.

Polar bear pelts can also be brightened if there is minor discolouration, he said.

“We don’t want to have hundreds of them sitting here, it’s just the state of the market right now,” he said.

“We’ve done what we can to attract market interest… but when you see that decline by 30 or 40 per cent or even more, the interest in polar bears declines at least as much, maybe even more.”