Kopenhagen Fur's February auction established several records and the sale was very satisfactory. Demand was strong with China in the lead, but other markets were also active, so there was a tendency for increased spread in sales. The offering consisted of 4 million mink skins. The original plan was an offering of 3.6 million mink skins, but due to the number of skins sent in by the farmers and information from the retail market it was decided to increase the offering. The average price of mink rose by just over 13 percent compared with the December auction. The average price reached DKK 324 which is a very satisfactory level. Around 600 customers attended the auction and this is a record for a February auction. About half the customers were from China, which is still the locomotive in relation to demand. However, it was very encouraging to see that customers from Korea, Russia, Greece and Turkey were also active at this auction. It is the winter cold, which has fuelled the demand in these markets. It is also an important factor that fur is very visible in international fashion.
The quality of the offering was high. In difficult times the sale of very commercial products is usually most severely hit, while the luxury segment is less cyclical. The quality of the offering is thus stimulating demand and price. Among other things this resulted in a good premium on Velvet qualities, whereas the long-haired mink skins halted price-wise. The offering consisted of both main types and mutations. The main types fetched 10% on average while mutations obtained the highest rises in price and were sold at very high prices. A small offering of foxes was sold at rising prices of 30% for blue foxes and 22% for silver foxes. Also chinchilla was in high demand, and the skins rose 26 percent. An offering of Russian sables was sold at high prices. Two top lots in male and female skins respectively were offered. The top lot in Black Velvet females was bought by Manios Dimitrios from the Italian Centro Bel Furs at DKK 800 per skin. The top lot will be exhibited at the Italian fur exhibition Mifur.
The top lot in males was in Mahogany Velvet and it also went to Italy. Alessandro Pajaro, SAP FUR Srl, bought it at DKK 810 per skin. The skins will be used for a fur coat to the Russian first lady Svetlana Medvedev. The total turnover reached record high 1.4 billion DKK. On the third day of the auction 2.4 million mink skins were sold at a total of more than 800 million DKK. Never before have so many mink skins been sold in just one day.
Kopenhagen Fur's next auction will be held from April 12 - 16 with inspection from the April 7.
37th International Fur Fair, a commercial success and more!
During this year's four days International fur fair of Kastoria, a total of 4.550 visitors from 36 countries visited the exhibition, 1135 of those being commercial visitors and 531 coming directly fromRussia. That is a 10% visitor increase compared to last year's 36th fair in 2011.
A total of 160 fur businesses exhibited over a total of10,500 m2, with beautiful booths and fur designs exhibited. in general 1.832 persons with different qualifications worked from various positions (salesmen and saleswomen, models, construction workers, electricians, cleaning services etc.)
Finally, the Kastorian Fur Association worked closely with the Parent's Association for children with cancer "Floga" (translated "Flame") in contribution to it's valuable purpose