The Fur Industry - A Valuation and Discussion

I've always been fascinated with the fur industry and although I don't actually wear real furs myself I've always been intrigued by the history and evolution of the industry.


One of the earliest recognisable signs of the fur industry we know today was the Russian fur industry, which developed during the Early Middle Ages and went on to be the largest exporter of fur between the 17th and 19th centuries. Initially, the Russians would export their furs from ports around the Black and Baltic seas and send the majority to the German city of Leipzig.


This industry began to explode worldwide during the 1500s with the beginning of North American and Canadian exports, which anthropologists claim was initially sparked by the trade of lives for pelts between Native Americans and the American colonisers.


Since 2000 the industry has seen a new revival, with the rise of the Chinese middle classed combined with an increase in domestic Russian demand.Now, there are over 6,000 fur farms in the European Union (EU), with the EU accounting for more than 60% of the global mink production and almost exactly 70% of the global fox production, with Denmark being the leading mink producing country (creating around 28% of the global production) while Finland picked up the winning spot for exporting fox pelts globally.


In terms of putting a value on the fur industry, the International Fur Federation (IFF) suggested that the global value of the industry is about $40 billion, which is about the same as the global Wi-Fi market or about half the value of annual renewable energy expenditure  in the USA.


Personally, I'm not a fan of wearing real furs. This isn't to say that I'm wholly against wearing it and I'll more than happily wear vintage furs, but I just don't feel comfortable with the killing of animals for use as clothing when I live in the South of England, where it never gets cold enough to warrant real furs. This could possibly be seen as somewhat ironic though, as I still love a good steak! 


Furthermore, I feel that there are certainly inevitable animal welfare issues and this combined with certain inherent inefficiencies within the fur industry, such as the use of the remaining carcasses (granted, in the EU, some are used in the manufacture of cement and used for heating) where more regulation is needed to reduce the amount that are just discarded. This sadly means that I'm reluctant to allow my personal fashion decisions to stray down this alley, especially when faux fur is so much easier to work with as a material in comparison to animal pelts.



This does however lead me interestingly to discuss the alternative faux furs currently in the market place: 


For the past two years, I've made myself a new coat annually (exhibit the two somewhat ridiculous coats to the left and below) and both of these have used faux fur that I purchased from a company called FauxThrow (http://www.fauxthrow.com/index.php), that specialise in providing realistic and warm faux furs. 


Now, this isn't a post to advertise, faux fur companies, but I cannot recommend a better company: the faux furs are stunningly beautiful, realistic, easy to work with and the range of choice is unimaginably high. 



Faux fur has been commercially available since 1950 and was introduced to the fashion world as early as 1929. Brands like Chanel and Ralph Lauren still actively promote the use of fur alternatives in their collections and this is a trend that still has a large prominence in US teen fashion brands such as Abercrombie and Fitch. 


It's much harder to estimate the value of the faux fur industry, probably because the supply chains are much longer and more complicated, but also because the understandable lack of regulation in comparison to the fur industry makes it much harder to track the movements of money in and out of this industry. 

I should however state that this doesn't mean that the fur farmers are part of an evil, overlording industry, as there are arguably many positive aspects to the industry:


It has long been argued that natural furs are more sustainable than their petroleum based faux equivalents and most mink farms recycle abattoir and other food industry by-products. Furthermore, there's an emerging argument relating to second generation biofuels (more efficient and environmentally friendly than their primary equivalents), which can be made from mink oils. 


However CE Delft recently released a study suggesting that even a low-impact mink’s effect on the environment was more detrimental then the creation of faux fur. This paper specifically examined the manufacturing, cold storage, cleaning and life of real fur garments, with the result being that faux fur was supposedly five times more environmentally friendly than a single mink.


Food for thought,


The Masked AIM Trader