There have been cases where the people who support the marketing and selling of natural fur products have come under criticism and treatment from the anti-fur environmentalist groups. In France, for instance, it has been reported that the members of the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) are hitting people wearing natural fur clothing with ice cream. Such kinds of protests by environmentalist groups, worldwide, have frustrated the marketing of natural fur products. The reason why the prices and the demand for this product have gone high is that in some countries the anti-fur groups are still in their infancy stages and therefore have not made a huge impact on the marketing of these products.
Another reason is that it is sometimes very difficult to convince people to give up fashionable things; Natural fur coats are considered very fashionable and expensive. Climatic changes are partly the cause of the increasing prices and demand for natural fur clothing. In countries like Russia the biggest market for natural fur products there is extreme weather winter. People admit that it is difficult to keep warm without clothing made from natural fur. Russia is the biggest consumer of fur and the prices of fur have soared because of Russia’s economic explosion. This has led to the demand for luxury goods.
In Economics the law of supply and demand is perhaps one of the most concepts in economics. Supply is the amount of the product that the producer is willing to and capable to sell at a given price. Demand simply refers to the quantity of a product that the buyers are willing to buy. The law of demand further states that if all the other factors remain equal the higher the price the fewer people will demand the product. Moreover, the law of supply states that the higher the price the higher the quantity will be supplied. The prices of fur coats have continued to tumble in recent years because of the negative publicity from the environmental groupings. This has led to people going for substitutes.
For instance, animal rights groups have been trying to convince a large number of fur coat buyers to change to microfiber jackets. This has the effect of making the pelt prices fall hence resulting in the harvest of the baby seal falling. The effect of negative publicity is that people will shun away from the product for fear of being told that they are practicing sustainable development. The quantity of the fur coat demanded has continued to go down causing the prices to be unstable. With the prices on a downward trend, the suppliers will supply the lees of the commodity.
The relationship between the fur coats and the woolen and angora coats could be that of substitutes. Substitutes are different products that are able to serve the same purposes for the consumers, satisfy the same needs, and therefore can replace one another and their prices have prices exhibit positive cross elasticity of demand. This means that should the price of one good go up the sales of the other goodwill rise and vis a vis. This is true for normal goods and works in the opposite direction for luxury goods.
Therefore, in the event that the supply of one good has fallen, in this case, the supply of the fur coats, they become scarce in the market. The market response is that the consumers will shift their consumption to that of the luxury woolen and Angora coats. This shift of consumption will ensure that the demand for luxury woolen and angora coats is high in the market. When demand for a particular good in the market is high, the prices will tend to also increase. According to the law of supply, when everything is held constant, an increase in the price of a commodity will lead to an increase in the supply of the commodity in the market. The woolen and angora coats being luxury goods, as their prices increase, they will become less available to the normal consumers, and therefore only the very rich will sought for them. Their high prices in the market make them more desirable for the consumers and therefore the rise in their sales and prices in the market.
On the other hand, the fall in the prices of the fur coats in the market and the subsequent decline in their supply will work negatively on their demand considering the negative publicity caused by the rights groups. Being a luxury good, when their prices fall, it will be realized that their demand will fall since the rich consumers who usually buy them specifically due to their high prices will find them less desirable. This is in contrast to the law of demand.