Seal pelt advances up 25 per cent
Government of Nunavut program aims to increase participation in age-old industry
Daron Letts
Northern News Services
Monday, May 25, 2015
NUNAVUT
The Government of Nunavut is seeking to attract more Nunavummiut land claim beneficiaries to the hunting and trapping industry by increasing its upfront payments for pelts.
Beneficiaries who harvest seals are receiving 25 per cent more for cleaned and dried pelts this summer, which now range from $31.25 to $75 each depending on size and quality.
The Environment Department's Fur Pricing Program budget has grown by $160,000 to $805,000 to facilitate the increased rates, which came into effect on April 1.
Established to help harvesters achieve competitive prices for their pelts following the market collapse in the 1980s, the program provides financial security by paying a guaranteed price for skins.
Conservation officers stationed in Government of Nunavut wildlife offices in every community assess the pelt quality and advance up to 75 per cent of the appraised value of each pelt, to a maximum of $3,000. The harvesters receive the remainder of the sale price and the government is reimbursed for the advance when the pelts are sold at auction later in the season.
The department stores and grades the pelts, which are shipped to North Bay, Ont., at no cost to Nunavummiut harvesters. There, they are sold to national and international buyers through Fur Harvester's Auction Inc.
If the auction house determines that a species is achieving low prices in a given year, the dried pelts can be appropriately stored for up to three years as the seller awaits improved markets.
Approximately 1,300 individual harvesters have sold pelts to the program at least once in the past three years, resulting in the department's annual purchase of about 3,000 sealskins on average, with about half of those being of premium garment-quality.
Sealskins fetched $1.04 million at auction in 2013, down from $1.1 million in 2012.
Prior to the seal ban instituted in 2009 by the European Union, hunters sold around 8,000 sealskins to the program annually at around $70 or $80 for quality pelts. The current average price per pelt is around $39.
The government's goal is to increase the annual production to at least 6,000 sealskins, which would meet demand for pelts in the communities and generate commercial interest both domestically and internationally.
After prices immediately dropped below the program's $50 purchase price following the ban, the policy changed to declare pelts purchased by wildlife officers as government property. One third of the pelts go to auction and the remainder are sold back to Nunavummiut crafters and businesses at cost, with no added shipping expenses.
The government encourages communities to make full commercial use of the estimated 40,000 sealskins generated by the traditional food hunt, which produces about $5 million worth of meat for Inuit families.
Last summer, the government began purchasing Harp seal pelts for the first time, rather than focusing exclusively on ringed seal, which has an estimated population of close to two million widely distributed throughout the territory.
On April 1, the Government of Nunavut also upped its payment to hunters and trappers who sell fox, wolf, wolverine, polar bear and grizzly bear furs to the Fur Pricing Program. Sellers now receive the full sale proceeds for their furs, without the eight per cent deduction previously cut to cover the auction house's commission.
Pangnirtung and Qikiqtarjuaq are consistently the most prolific seal pelt-producing communities.
