SEPTEMBER 2014 SWAKARA AUCTION RESULTS
Published: 11 Sep 2014 

Agra facilitated the sale of the Swakara offering at the September 2014 international auction in Copenhagen, Denmark, with the highest ever black hammer price for the top lot in Namibian Dollar sold for N$ 2 964.00, an increase of N$ 558.40 comparing to the April 2014 auction. Agra sold a 100 percent of the total Swakara offering of 52 013 pelts at this auction on 9 September 2014.

The pelt offer consisted of 35 872 black, 8 794 white, 3 835 grey, 725 brown and 2 787 spotted pelts. The grey pelts were lastly sold in September 2013, and emerged with a favourable average price per pelt of N$ 710.60. And the brown pelts where last sold in 2012, and achieved an average pelt price of N$ 640.30.

Pelt prices in the fur industry in general were under immense pressure over the past year. The Swakara pelt sales expectations for the September auction were subdued, given the fact that not all pelts sold and a considerable price drop in April. Also, the Swakara pelt auction started off very slow; luckily only affecting the black pelts. The black pelts average price of N$ 495.90 represents a decrease of 12% if compared to April 2014 auction. White pelts achieved an average pelt price of N$ 818.90, which is an increase of 10.9% if compared to April 2014 auction. And the spotted pelts achieved a higher than expected price of N$ 359.10, an increase of 95.7% if compared to the April 2014 auction.

The total average pelt price was DKK 295, an increase by DKK 3 if compared to April 2014. In Namibian Dollar (N$) terms, this is a slight drop of N$6 on average for all pelts. This is due to the strengthened Namibia Dollar towards Danish Krone (DKK). In April the exchange rate was DKK:N$ of 1:1.94. Dagmar Honsbein, General Manager of Agra ProVision, who was one of the attendees of the auction had this to say; “Prior to the auction, activity in the auction house was limited if compared to previous auctions in general. We feared a repeat of the April 2014 auction proceedings; especially as the usual buyers of Swakara pelts arrived rather late to inspect the offer. They also informed us of having a lot of stock left from the previous auction. We are extremely delighted to be able to inform our producers that sales have indeed recovered.” Amongst those in attendance where Ryno van der Merwe, Chairperson of the Agra board; Peter Kazmaier, Chief Executive Officer of Agra; and Raimar von Hase, Chairperson of the Karakul (Swakara) Board.

The highest price achieved for white Swakara was N$ 2 546.00 for lot # 239096, purchased by the Tony Jessop, broker of Avanti Furs from Kastoria, Greece. The highest price ever achieved for the black Swakara was N$ 2 964.00 for lot # 239096, paid by Thomas Rebild, a Danish broker who bought on behalf of Elena Furs from Moscow, Russia. Normally, Elena Furs buys many mink and wild furs at auctions. However, the company is now designing a new collection using Swakara. Swakara is a very popular fur in Russia for decades.

Mr Rebild was the single biggest buyer of the Swakara pelt offering, purchasing 11 455 pelts. Collectively the United Kingdom based brokers bought the most pelts, amounting to 12 770 pelts, and they are destined for Russia. The Italian brokers purchased 9 093 pelts, which are mainly destined for Hong Kong. The other pelts were bought by an Italian manufacturer for Italy, Greek manufacturers for Greece, USA and German brokers for divers’ destination.