By Serge Lariviére
It is always quiet on the fur market front when harvesting seasons are on. Most trappers are busy in the fields and forest chasing furbearers, and on the buying front, there is always a lull, a slow time in the trade. Fall and early winter may be best to catch fur, but winter is best to buy and sell, so there is very seldom fresh market information that comes out during trapping season.
This year is no different, all is fairly quiet on the marketing front, and our best guess for the forecast so far is likely a repeat of this past season. That means beaver will lead the market in terms of profitability — again for the felt market — which means that this is an underfur market. So prime beaver — big, small, even with damage, will sell better than early, unprime skins. Everyone in the trade expects the beaver offering to rise with realistic prices of $20-$40, which now allows beaver trappers to cover expenses and maybe make a few dollars.
This is good for a whole lot of reasons. First, almost all traplines have some beavers on them, and having a profitable fur is nice when most trappers can benefit. Second, a lot of trappers MUST trap beavers to keep landowners happy, deal with problem cases, etc., so it is nice to able to sell your catch, as well. Third, beaver meat makes great bait (if you do not consume it yourself!), and many northern trappers must catch beavers for bait for lynx, fisher and marten. Good prices for beavers is a blessing, and one that most trappers can benefit from. If you have beavers to catch, catch them when they are prime!
Beaver trappers have many set options for catching flattails. Photo credit Jason Houser.
Castor glands are a by-product of the beaver catch, and with increasing harvest of beaver, the offering of castor glands also will increase, which is likely to result in a price reduction. We already saw a drop in price last year, and most likely, prices will continue to soften this season. There is no point in keeping your castors glands in the freezer for an eventual upswing of the market, as I believe this market will continue to decrease slightly every year as the beaver catch increases. Shop around and sell your good glands, and use or trade the scraps, damaged or shells for lures.
Other water animals will continue to face difficult markets. Muskrats remain tough to sell as ranch mink continue to struggle. Mink prices will be in the $3 to $5 range, and river otters will remain around a $30 average, although this market, one that China loves, could move up for super prime, select skins. Again, if you trap beavers when they are prime, the incidental otters you will catch should also be prime.
The Trapper’s Fur Market expert Serge Lariviére.
Long-haired skins used for coats and garments are not expected to rise above last year’s prices. Red and gray foxes elicit very weak demand, and prices struggle to exceed $10 to $15 per skin. Coyotes, the most profitable fur on the market for 10 years during the 2012-2022 period, are back to averages below $20 to $30 for the best Western pelts, and $10 to $15 for Eastern skins. The impact of low prices for coyote pelts is that very few country buyers are willing to pay anything for a carcass coyote, as the cost of skinning, fleshing and put-up is greater than the actual pelt value. I have heard of $5 being paid for frozen Eastern coyotes, and maybe $10 for Western animals. Skinner fees do not decline with the market, and the handling of large animals is a big job.
For the same reason, nobody wants to buy whole raccoons, or even raccoons skinned but not fleshed, as the price of a put-up pelt is not even sufficient to pay the handling fee. Raccoon pelts will likely remain at dismal prices until Russia can come back to the buying table, which will only occur after the war with Ukraine is over and their economy returns to normal. I cannot see raccoon prices going upward within the next three years, and if you enjoy trapping them, wait until mid-November and go after the big boars that are fully prime. It is as much work skinning and fleshing a prime racccoon as it is an unprime one — so catch them when they are prime, even if it means catching fewer of them. In my neck of the woods, as I suspect occurs elesewhere, no one is chasing raccoons by the hundreds on purpose. I love trapping raccoons, but not when $10 is a dream price for a 4XL super prime skin.
Bobcats, Canada lynx, marten and fisher should remain stable. These exotic skins are limited in number, and considered “luxurious,” which then creates its own demand. But luxury is paid most by China and Russia, and Russia is out, so prices remain good but not great.
Up close and personal with a female black wolf. Photo credit Dan Helterline.
The animals that continue to sell well are taxidermy or wall-hanging skins: bears, wolves, wolverines, cross and silver foxes. Most and more country buyers get orders from the taxidermy world for animals that can be mounted, or wall-hangers of exceptional quality. If you have connections with folks operating outfitting camps and tourist shops, investigate the possibility of selling your skins as wall-hangers. It is definitely a limited market that cannot swallow thousands of skins, but you may be able to do well if you have five to 10 animals of each species to sell. Many trappers can double “normal skin prices” once a pelt is tanned as a wall-hanger. The only downfall is that the market is limited — and it takes exposure and special skins to attract buyers. But a nice coyote pelt is a beautiful thing to hang in a hunting camp, an outpost, even a countryside gas station. If you have connections, explore this idea — in a low market, it could allow you to sell what is tough to move otherwise.
Soon we will enter another selling season and a cold winter in China would help us, along with an end to the Russia-Ukraine war. Peace on earth and economic stability is key to good demand and high prices in luxury goods. I hope 2024 finally brings us this long-awaited upswing in the fur market!
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