NEW SAREPTA, Alta. – Elk producers finally have something to smile about. The price of elk antler has doubled since last year.
Good elk antler in the velvet stage now fetches about $30 a pound, up from $15 last year and there is talk the price could creep up to $37 a lb. before the end of the season.
“It’s been pretty exciting,” said Glenda Elkow, chair of the Alberta Elk Commission.
Elkow said normally a $45 a lb. velvet price makes the industry hum along.
“There’s nothing wrong with $30,” said Elkow. She had a buyer stop at her Lloydminster, Alta., farm recently to inspect her supply of antler.
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From 1996 to 2002, elk velvet prices averaged $56 a lb. In 2004, they dropped to $10, the lowest price since the industry was developed in the 1980s. Last year prices struggled to reach $15 a lb.
Troubles began when Chronic Wasting Disease was discovered in farmed elk and international borders closed to Canadian elk velvet exports. South Korea, the largest and most profitable market for elk velvet, closed its border in 2000 and it is still not buying despite delegations of Canadians going to Korea explaining the safety of the product. Koreans use elk velvet as a medicine.
In 2003, the U.S. border closed to live elk shipments when BSE was discovered in cattle. Elk can’t get BSE, but the animals were caught up in the border closure, which cut off lucrative elk sales to trophy farms. Now, some elk are shipped to the United States using special permits.
Christine Harrison of Shooting Star Ranch near New Sarepta, Alta., said rising velvet prices makes it easier to keep farming elk in troubled times.
“It gives us some instant money right away,” said Harrison.
She heard rumours last winter that prices were set to rise, but didn’t believe it until Canadian buyers raised offers.
A mature bull can produce 30 to 35 lb. of antler each year. An average Alberta elk farm has about 80 animals of which half are bulls that produce the antler.
Alberta has about 380 elk producers, down from 440 at the industry’s peak.
The difficult times caused by CWD and BSE forced many producers to leave the business. Others like Harrison worked to develop a local elk meat and antler capsule market.
Bob Blackmore, an elk velvet buyer for a Chinese company, said stronger prices in Canada are directly related to lower velvet yields in New Zealand, which is one of the world’s largest producers of velvet antler. Last year New Zealand redirected much of its production to venison and away from velvet sales. The reduced production boosted prices for velvet.
Canada produces 100 to 130 tonnes of velvet antler each year, down from 200 tonnes at its peak. New Zealand supplies more than 70 percent of the world’s 1,000 tonne demand for velvet.
Blackmore doubts prices will rise much above their current level and might even drop.
“I see the prices backing off $5 a lb. fairly quickly,” said Blackmore.
“Any time prices spike up, it spikes down quickly too.”
He said there are four main companies in the world that buy antler and they’re all in Canada looking for velvet.
