‘Resurgent’ fur trade brushes off tariff turbulence

With Donald Trump imposing tariffs on Canada, many industries are bracing for the potential impacts. That includes the fur trade, but key people in the industry say it hasn’t dampened the interest of US buyers.

Fur Harvesters Auction Inc, a trapper-owned cooperative located in North Bay, Ontario, is the only auction house in the world that handles North American wild fur.

It holds two international fur auctions each year, in March and June, and tries to achieve the highest prices possible for trappers.

In a Tuesday press release, Mark Downey, chief executive officer of the Fur Harvesters Auction, said while the organization has received concerned calls from shippers about the potential impacts of US tariffs, they’re not expected to affect the upcoming June auction.

“Our March auction was extremely well attended and achieved exceptional results and clearances, and we anticipate a similar result in June,” he wrote.

“All goods shipped from this auction house to all our markets are tariff-free, as are all fur shipments coming in from the United States consigned for our June 2025 auction.”

US customers undeterred

Howard Noseworthy with the Fur Harvesters Auction told Cabin Radio that at the recent auction, which took place between March 19 and 21, the potential impact of tariffs did not appear to affect how much US customers were willing to pay and buy.

“They bought at their normal qualities. They paid, if anything, higher prices than they had paid in the past,” he said.

Noseworthy said prices were “up considerably” – around 30 to 40 percent – for species harvested by northern trappers such as marten and lynx.

“Fur is once again in fashion, thankfully,” he said. “And that’s not just in Canada, it’s throughout the world.”

Noseworthy said southeast Asia is the auction’s biggest market, followed by Europe. He estimated that around 10 percent of furs go to the US.

Tariff policies change

Trump’s tariff policies have changed numerous times during his short tenure as president.

None of the current US tariffs against Canada are specifically targeted at fur. The White House recently said Canada would be exempt from the 10 percent “baseline” tariffs Trump imposed on the import of all goods from other countries. (Trump has kept the baseline tariff in place but moved this week to pause, for at least 90 days, most countries’ so-called “reciprocal” tariffs he had previously stacked on top.)

Ahead of the March auction, Doug Chiasson, the executive director of the Fur Institute of Canada, said there was a lot of uncertainty in the fur industry due to US tariffs.

Like Noseworthy, he said demand and prices for fur have, however, remained strong, with US buyers bidding alongside customers from around the globe.

Chiasson said untangling how tariffs could impact goods along the globalized supply chain is tricky. He gave the example that tariffs on steel and aluminum could affect the costs of traps.

“Unfortunately things are getting more complicated, not less complicated,” he said.

Forecast for June

Noseworthy said the demand and prices for northern species are expected to remain strong at the next auction, set for June 15-17, and possibly even higher than in March.

“Most of our customers probably did not get as much as they wanted,” he said. “If fur is more in fashion, their market’s expanding, they need bigger volumes.”

The Genuine Mackenzie Valley fur forecast for 2025 expressed “a lot of optimism” heading into the trapping season, saying that fur prices have steadily risen in recent years. Between 2023 and 2024, prices for lynx, marten, fisher and ermine reportedly increased between 24 and 56 percent.

According to the Department of Environment and Climate Change, 19,119 pelts from the NWT were sold in 2024 for a total of $521,707, a 52-percent increase compared to 2023.

At the most recent auction, the department said 3,598 pelts from the territory were sold.

Chiasson said he hopes there will be more predictability when it comes to US tariffs. But he said tariffs aren’t having an “outsized impact” on the fur industry and there is a strong demand for fur from the NWT.

“There is a resurgence right now and interest in fur,” he said.

“I would hate to see the current trade uncertainty – and the impact that that will have on the broader economy – have that potentially blunt the growth in fur that we’re hoping to see over the next few years.”