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All 39,000 Swakara pelts sent to Copenhagen sold but for 8% less

All 39,000 Swakara pelts sent to Copenhagen sold but for 8% less

The entire consignment of Swakara pelts send for auction at Kopenhagen Fur in Denmark last week was sold. The average price in Danish Krone was 7.68% lower than in April this year but the exchange rate acted as a buffer. Consequently, in Namibia Dollar, the average price of N$497 per pelt was less than one percent lower.

Swakara marketer Agra said this week the consignment comprised 23,518 black, 8866 white, 2338 grey, 593 brown, 2696 spotted and 996 diverse pelts.

The top lot for white Swakara fetched N$3,515.94. This is the highest price ever achieved for a top lot white in Namibia Dollar terms. The top lot for black Swakara fetched N$2,647.30. For both lots, the buyer was LaoPanPicao a fur retailer from Harbin, China.

Kevin Wan, the representative of LaoPanPicao, together with Chris Cui, President of Kopenhagen Fur’s Beijing office, were part of a delegation of 13 business leaders from the Chinese fur trade, who visited Namibia last year to familiarize themselves with Swakara fur operations in Namibia. The group visited the farm of Reinhold Schreiber, accompanied by the Karakul Board chairman, Raimar von Hase, where they were shown the production and preparation of Swakara pelts.

“Swakara is very beautiful and you can make very unique styles of it. We are working on a project with Kopenhagen Fur’s Design Centre to promote the beautiful Swakara in China” said Wan.

The average price for black Swakara pelts was N$459.04, an increase of 4.34% compared to April 2017 and for white pelts N$767.66, a decrease of 4.97%. The biggest surprise of the auction was the average of N$257.40 for spotted pelts, an increase of over 54%.

The 39,000 pelts earned Namibian Swakara producers more than N$19.3 million.

The top Namibian producer with more than 250 pelts is R H Losper, who achieved an average price of N$802.52 for 279 pelts. The top South African producer was W A Knoesen who sold 254 pelts at an average of R661.22.


Pictured at the Swakara auction in Copenhagen, from the left, Wessel Visser (Agra Pelt Centre), Kasper Reinbacher (Kopenhagen Fur), Kevin Wan (LaoPanPicao, China), Henry Awaseb (Agra Pelt Centre), Jesper Uggerhoj (Chief Executive, Kopenhagen Fur), Arnold Klein (Chief Executive Agra) and Jaco van Zyl (Agra Pelt Centre).


 

 

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