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GREECE: Chinese Fur Unwraps a New Threat

Apostolis Fotiadis

KASTORIA (Greece), Aug 6 2008 (IPS) - Local people were heartened to see 30 Russian ladies getting off a bus last week in Kastoria, a little town up in the mountains 600km northwest of Athens. Kastoria is more popular with winter tourists.

But between May and September, buses bring Russians to Kastoria’s Fur Centre three to fours times a week. They visit particularly a permanent exhibition of the latest styles from local producers.

“In the early months of the summer it is mostly individuals who buy for themselves,” says Maria Maggou, a seller at the centre. “Later it’s the start of the new season in Russia, and you meet more traders looking to buy stock for their shops.”

Maria is the daughter of ethnic Greeks who returned seven years ago from Uzbekistan. She speaks fluent Russian, like others employed at the centre. Russian is good for business here.

Centre president Nickolas Zouloumis says fur makes up to 50 percent of Greek exports to ex-Soviet countries. “The more their energy-fuelled economies recover from the shock of the nineties, the more the impact in this distant corner of Greece.”

Fur also accounts for 70 percent of Greek exports to the United Arab Emirates, where the world’s jet-set travels for luxurious shopping tourism. Now some Kastorian producers have opened outlets in Dubai. But this could be risky investment, Zouloumis says, given the enormous cost.

The growth of this market over the last few years has motivated local producers to invest in previously abandoned breeding of Mink, the animal that provides the main raw material for the fur industry.

“During the 1980s breeding and the fur industry generally were defamed by a well organised campaign for animal rights which promoted the synthetic petroleum fur,” Giannis Xanthakos, a Mink breeder and fur producer, told IPS.

“It was proven that their motivation was not so innocent, since the campaign misinformed people about the origin and treatment of animals, and in many cases was founded by competitive industries. Mink intended for fur is only a product of breeding, and the animals are not brutalised at any point. Their sacrifice causes less suffering than that of many other species used by the food and clothing industries.”

There are 35 farms breeding Mink in north-western Greece producing 500,000 pieces of fur annually. Up to 2.5 million pieces are imported to cover demand from local industry.

Despite optimistic prospects, the fur trade is a highly risky occupation. “This is due to the fact that leather prices are connected to international trade and thus they are very sensitive,” says Zouloumis. “In 1997-98 the devaluation of the Russian rouble pushed local producers into serious recession. They had expected a good year and had expanded businesses by borrowing a lot.”

But it is the gigantic Chinese entrance into this market that seems to distress Kastorians the most. “China begun producing fur some years ago without developing a sector from scratch. Instead it imported technology, scientists and the know-how straight from Finland,” says Zouloumis.

Lower labour costs in China and a larger infrastructure have made it a big threat to small Kastorian producers. Kastorians try to cope by maintaining high quality.

“The improvement of working and economic rights in China is going to reduce the gap in prices in the next few years but it’s not the same for quality, so with a little bit of luck we can end up with a minor advantage,” Zouloumis says.