By DEAN LISK
North Bay acts as one of only a select few hubs for the North American fur industry, worth billions of dollars annually in North America, but the industry is facing a number of challenges ahead of it in order to ensure its future health and prosperity.
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North Bay is one of a select few wild-fur trading hubs in the world, but the industry is being jeopordized by the lack of young people, says Don Blahut, director of the Fur Havesters Auction. |
Don Blahut, the director of the Fur Harvesters Auction in North Bay, says more young people need to get involved in the industry, which is one of Canada's oldest industries.
"Most of the pelts were shipped out last week," says Blahut as he walks through the large, almost empty storerooms of the auction building on Bond Street in North Bay.
A few beaver, marten and other animal pelts are still being packed into large cardboard boxes, or are piled on trolleys and hanging racks located around the building. Most of the furs have already left for a large auction in mid-February in Seattle, Wash.
Originally opened by the Ontario Trappers Association in 1959, the auction house moved to its current location in the mid-1960s, and was reopened by the fur harvesters group in 1991 after the Trappers Association went into receivership.
Dealing mainly in wild fur, the auction house receives pelts from across North America, mostly form trappers, and is consigned to sell them to buyers around the world.
Four auctions are scheduled annually, lasting two or three days each and bringing in $10 million to $11 million a year.
"There are only three main auction houses that deal in wild fur," says Blahut. One is located in Toronto at the North America Fur Auction, while the other is in the Russian exchange in St. Petersburg.
"For our industry we are right in the heart of the supply," he adds.
While this is the case, the director says the industry is facing challenges with numerous peaks and dives occurring since the inception of the market.
"If you look right back through history to when the fur trade began, there have been a series of peaks and valleys in price and demand," explains Blahut.
He says in the mid-1980s fisher pelts were selling for $200 to $300, which is 10 times their current value. Lynx pelts sold for $600 instead of their current $100 to $150 price range.
This all changed after a series of warm winters, an increase in fur activism, a stock market crash and an over supply of fur on the market led to a crash in 1987.
"When you look at the fur industry worldwide, 85 per cent of the total fur used is ranch fur, only 15 per cent is wild fur," says Blahut.
"All the big ranches are in Europe and are heavily subsidized by their governments. In the 1980s, the world was utilizing around 31 million mink a year, but the ranches were producing 30 to 35 million per year, so there was a glutton of fur on the market."
He says the industry has begun bouncing back, but it is still only at half the level it was in the 1980s.
Since then, the market has built itself up again, peeking in 1995 and "seems to be coming back even stronger than before," he says.
"People's attitudes have changed," adds Blahut. "The anti-fur movement caught the attention of consumers initially, but the fur producers have begun to rebut their statements. Trappers and the fur industry were wrongly targeted and perceived to be something they really weren't."
Blahut says the industry is again at the start of a new peak, but says the age of trappers is slowing growth.
"We are an aging industry, our demographics are really skewed," he explains. "We have no, or very few, young people coming into the profession. We have seen some reduction in the harvest and that offers a challenge"
Blahut says the auction house needs to increase its volume in order to supply the emerging markets in Asia and Eastern Europe.
"There are new markets in Russia and China, but we are almost unable to supply them with the quantities of fur they need," he says.
"Everyone is moving to the big cities with more opportunities. Everything is high tech now, and trapping is basically hard work and low pay for the return the trapper gets. He isn't going to get rich
trapping," adds Blahut.
As part of the auction's attempt to increase the presence of young people in the fur industry, it recently hosted a group of Dene Native youth who are relearning their culture.
The nine, between the ages of 16 and 22, participated in a program in the Northwest Territories where they trapped marten, bringing the pelts to the fur auction to learn what they did right and what they did wrong with the furs. They trapped the furs as part of a pilot project called the Shtu Region Trapping School.
The project teaches Native students the traditional trapping techniques used by their culture in hopes of providing them with skills and interest in the industry.
During their visit to North Bay, the nine toured the auction, where staff showed them how to prepare fur and provided them education about the fur market.
"We are always looking at developing our company and moving into new export markets," says Blahut. "We have to move into new sources of supplies, which is why we are working with the Northwest Territories and other markets to make sure we keep having a supply coming in,"
He says there is definitely some merit in these types of programs, especially in some of the northern communities, to encourage youth into the industry.
Blahut says another group of students, this time from the University of Toronto, will visit the auction at the start of March.
"We've got a program where we have children from Grade 2 and Grade 3, right through to university coming into the auction," he says.
Speaking to the kids who visit the auction house, Blahut says there are two common reactions.
"They don't like the smell," explains the director. "The second thing we get is that it looks like every animal in the world is dead and lying on the floor."
He says this image reassures him the fur market in Northern Ontario and Canada is healthy.
"I explain to the kids we have been doing this for 40 years, and four times a year all the rooms will fill with fur for an auction. But, this tells me there will always be a supply of fur as long as it is properly managed and regulated."
