Kopenhagen Fur facts for kids
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Kopenhagen Fur is the biggest company in the world that sells fur skins at auction. It is a special type of business called an agricultural cooperative, which means it's owned by the farmers who supply the furs. The company is located in Glostrup, near Copenhagen, Denmark. When they are very busy, Kopenhagen Fur can sort and pack 150,000 furs in just one day! In 2020, it was reported that they handled 40% of all the mink fur produced globally.
Kopenhagen Fur mainly deals with mink fur. They produce, sort, and trade these furs. They also have special workshops and classes for fashion designers and researchers. These workshops help designers learn how to work with fur. Kopenhagen Studio has two main places: one in Langelinie, Denmark, where they have workshops, and another in Beijing, China, at Tsinghua University, where they train new fur designers.
A Look Back: Kopenhagen Fur's Story
For a long time, most of Europe's fur was sold by two big companies: Finnish Fur Sales from Finland or Copenhagen Fur Center (CFC) from Denmark. About 90% of the fur skins sold by CFC were from mink. They also sold furs from fox and fitch. The company holds big international auctions about five or six times each year.
In 1963, after three years of planning, a part of CFC called Empress Chinchilla helped organize how chinchilla furs were produced around the world. By 1979, the main fur auctions at CFC happened in January, March, May, and December. By 1999, about 500 buyers from 15 different countries would come to Copenhagen. They came to bid on about 12 million mink furs!
Kopenhagen Fur is known as the world's largest place for selling fur skins at auction. It's a very important spot for the global fur trade. When Copenhagen Fur Center stopped working with Saga Furs from Scandinavia, the company made some big changes. They changed their name to Kopenhagen Fur. They kept the "K" to show their location in Copenhagen, but used it in a unique way. The company has faced challenges, like when fur prices dropped by 30% between 2008 and 2009.
