Fur Buyer Sizing Up Finished Product Potential

Fur Buyer Sizing Up Finished Product Potential

Tuesday, October 12, 2004 at 13:26

One of the men behind a new, band-owned fur buyer in La Ronge can’t wait until the outfit starts marketing its own finished products.

Lac La Ronge Indian Band councillor Henry McKenzie says the fur-buying side of Kitsaki Fur Buyers is getting into full swing this fur season.

McKenzie says tanning the fur and turning it into finished products like muskrat hats is something he envisions developing over the next 2 to 3 years.

McKenzie says not only will that create more jobs for band members, it will also allow trappers to receive some of the proceeds of any sold products that come from their fur pelts through a system of record-keeping.

The band-owned enterprise has been promising greater returns to trappers that sell their pelts to Kitsaki because of its non-profit approach, but McKenzie says trappers will see the real pay-off once the band gets into its own product development.

McKenzie admits Kitsaki Fur Buyers was created with First Nations trappers in mind, but he says it’s open to all trappers.