April 2014 Swakara Auction results

Agra has facilitated the sale of the Swakara offering at the April pelt auction in Copenhagen, Denmark, with the highest ever black pelt average price of N$2.405,60 per pelt. Of the total offer of 68,500 Swakara pelts, 64,462 were sold at this auction on 10 April 2014. The average price was N$566,87 per pelt, a decrease of 12.37% on the N$646,88 achieved at the September 2013 auction.
The pelts sold consisted of 48.855 black, 14.030 white and 1.577 diverse pelts.
The highest price achieved for white Swakara was N$2.405,60 for a lot of 58 KF Selected Extra pelts, purchased by Athanasios Konstantinou of Kastoria Greece. The highest price ever for black pelts was N$2.405,60 for a lot of 108 O-Light-Selected Extra pelts, paid by EKATERINA Furs from Russia.
The pelt offer was bought by 23 buyers, with other prospective buyers bidding without success. The biggest buyer of Swakara was the company Bourtsos from Greece, who purchased 11.339 pelts. Italy bought the most pelts this time, with the agents from England in second and Greece in third place.

Fur-skin sales at recent fairs and auctions were below expectation and left skin dealers with high stock reserves. This was influenced by the warm winters in Russia and China and the uncertainty of the Russia/Ukraine political situation spreading especially in Europe. Quality black and specific white pelts still achieved good prices, while lower-grade pelt prices decreased further. The biggest drop in prices was with the spotted pelts, which dropped 43% in Danish Krone (DKK). Prices of mink dropped by approximately 50% from September 2013, which also had an effect on the Swakara prices, as it is linked to the mink-fur skin-pricing structure.
The top Namibian producer (with more than 250 pelts) at this auction was Lovedale Farming from Helmeringhausen selling 364 pelts at an average of N$864,09. The top South African producer was Johan Moller of Postmasburg who achieved an average price of R807,56 for 278 pelts.
The auction was graced by the presence of Dr Malan Lindeque, the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Trade and Industry, Mr Joseph Iita, the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry and Nikola Conradie, winner of the 2013 Swakara – Namibian Young Designer Award. They participated in the auction to learn more about the sale of Swakara products, to interact with buyers and to understand the market trends from year to year, the grading system and how marketing is handled.
AGRA has established ProVision (formerly known as Professional Services Division – PSD) in 2009 with the main objective of providing a structured framework for rendering various specialised services to the Namibian agricultural sector. The House of Swakara is an integral part of Agra ProVision.