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NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
The first wild fur sale of the season bodes well for Northwest Territories products this year, as the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Furs program saw surging prices for NWT fur pelts.

A marten fur pelt with a Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur tag. Wild fur pelt prices in the Northwest Territories surged at the first wild fur sale of the season hosted by Fur Harvesters Auction Inc. in North Bay, Ont., on Jan. 7. - photo courtesy of the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur program

More than 8,000 pelts from trappers across the territory were sold at the Jan. 7 auction hosted by Fur Harvesters Auction Inc. in North Bay, Ont., fetching more than $124,000, with pelts going for prices up to 135 per cent higher than 2011.

"We had incredible numbers," said Francois Rossouw of the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment's traditional economy and fur management division. He listed notable auction prices including $10 for muskrat and a top-selling Arctic fox pelt that sold for record price of $200 for one pelt.

The GNWT fur marketing service buys pelts from about 800 hunters and trappers across the NWT, including Fred Mandeville Sr., 78, who said he has been trapping since he was 10 years old.

Mandeville, who mostly traps marten in the Fort Resolution area, is among the more experienced trappers in the territory, although there are trappers currently in the program as young as 12, Rossouw said, adding the program "really promotes kids going trapping.

"It's a means to have an income, especially in the small communities," Rossouw said. "The idea is the bank is in the bush and that's where the money is."

A surge in international demand for fur as a luxury item, particularly in China, is partly driving the boost in pelt prices, Rossouw said.

"The Chinese dominate the fur industry," he said, noting about 90 per cent of the fur industry product is now manufactured in China as big fur houses move their operations to that country to cut labour costs. China is also one of the largest buying groups worldwide, and its middle class — the largest in the world — is increasingly picking up on fur as "that next luxury item they should have," Rossouw said.

"If they really take off, then there's no way any fur producer could actually meet the demand of the Chinese market, which would be good."

The GNWT has been marketing its fur pelts all around the world, including through trade shows in Russia, Hong Kong, Beijing, Turkey, Montreal and Milan, and sells at about three auctions annually across North America.

The Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur tags make it clear to the buyers at the auction that the fur is harvested by aboriginal people in the Northwest Territories and harvested in accordance to international humane trapping standards.

Through the program, aboriginal hunters and trappers are given an advance for their pelts, in addition to all proceeds from the fur sold at auction through the program.

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