Only one in five of the 1.6 million skins put up for auction at the Copenhagen Fur Centre in Glostrup were sold, after prices fell from 600 kroner ($97) a pelt to just 450 kroner. 

 

"Obviously it is dramatic when prices are reduced by a quarter,"  Steinar Nordang, an animal breeder in Ørsta told NRK. "Many skins were withdrawn from the auction because the prices were too low. We'll see if this is temporary or if the market has turned." 

 

The fur industry has come under pressure this year, with the outgoing Labour-led administration tasking an ethical committee to look at whether the country should ban fur farming following revelations of poor treatment of animals.

 

The last time prices were so low was in the depths of the global financial crisis in 2009. 

 

The Copenhagen Fur Center controls 50 percent of the world's fur market, selling around 15 million skins annually to between 400 and 500 buyers.