Remember the Annual Fur Pantomime?
Well, it turns out, Pantogoers, that the fur trade isn’t having such a good time after all. Wayne Pacelle’s recent blog included a link to the Nosey, sorry, Sandy Parker Report, which reports on the fur trade. Here’s the cake!
FUR APPAREL IMPORTS INTO THE U.S. are still on a sharply downward course reflecting the trade’s continuing conservative approach. The decline began in 2005 after five years of consistent growth. Considering that imports are believed to account for most of the fur apparel sold in the U.S., this would indicate that the decline in the nation’s fur sales in recent years has been much larger than had been estimated in the absence of official figures.
Imports from all sources in September amounted to $17.4 million, according to the latest Commerce Dept. data. This represented a decline of 26% from the previous year’s month and brought the nine-month total to $64.8 million, down nearly 30% for the year to date. At this rate, a fair projection for the entire year would be in the neighborhood of $100 million. This would be the lowest point since 1981, when imports amounted to $106.1 million.
