Fur Prices – Interesting Read

For those who do some trapping, I thought I’d share. Hoping 2013’s prices are even higher.

Fur Prices

Hope market holds up. Competition will be tough this year. Lots of new guys will be throwing their hats into the ring. Heck roadkill coon, fox, and yotes will be hard to come by.

I spoke with the guys from the NAFA at the convention in Marshfield this year and they feel the market will be as strong this year as the last. Reason, all furs sold this last auction. That and the drought last year didn’t yield enough furs to fill the demand that China has. The rat populations are way down across the board. With the prices so high they won’t be rebounding any time soon. So the Chinese are going into next season with quota still to fill from this past year. They feel the market should level off and the next couple of years should stay strong. Keep in mind this is what they (NAFA) feels is going to happen.

An old colleague was big intro trapping rats. After getting to know him better he started to tell me what they were getting for numbers and prices. As some one who is not into the trapping, or the know; I was blown away by what they were getting for their furs the last couple years. He’d take two weeks vacation and trap non-stop with one other guy. He was pulling in an additional 1/3-1/2 his annual salary as a near retirement age county dept head in those two weeks. Unreal

I sure want to be optimistic. Lord knows my checking account is feeling the impact of drought and early cold weather of last year. Weather will play a huge role in the harvest. Major cold snaps makes trapping tough, plus many fair-weather guys won’t play. That will lead to maintaining lower catches and higher prices. Good weather = higher catches and lower prices. We’ll see….