Possum: From pests to pelts of gold

Competition to purchase possum fur is heating up in Northland, with buyers from two rival firms each offering $135/kg for fibre from the pest's pelt.
As it takes up to 25 Northland possums to pluck a kilogram of fur, the marsupials are now worth around $5.50 each - about the same as their skins averaged 30 years ago before animal-rights action overseas scuttled the natural fur fashion trade.
The switch from skins to plucked fur, which manufacturers combine with wool to make light, warm garments, has seen possums rise in value, with their fur climbing from $50/kg in 2002 to $100 in 2008, $135 now and - hopefully - rising.
Scott Candy, of Okaihau, has been buying Northland fur for several years, collecting more than 10 tonnes annually
Scott buys for Basically Bush, which sells its possum fibre to Woolyarns, of Wellington, which blends it with merino wool to produce yarn used by fashion garment manufacturers such as Snowy Peak.
Scott is now being challenged by Grant Montgomery, of Whangarei Heads, who is a buyer for Dawson Furs, of Whakatane, covering the Waitakeres in Auckland to Cape Reinga.
And Dawson Furs offers possum catchers higher income as it buys tails - formerly without a market - skins and possum carcasses, which are used to make pet food. The company processed 70,000 of them last year.
The tails fetch $135/kg and the carcasses - trapped or shot (no poison) and frozen with heads and claws off and the "green" guts removed - average $1.60 each. Skins bring $3-$6 green frozen and $8-$18 dried.
Grant Montgomery, known as Monty, says Northland trappers could stockpile possum carcasses in their freezers. He would collect them when there was 50-100kg to consign to Whakatane on a freezer truck.
And Dawson Furs operations manager, Pat Condon, says the company will come to Northland fortnightly if it knows it can collect four to six tonnes of bodies.
"We're looking at Northland as the next area where we could set up a base," he says.
"Northland has no TB [tuberculosis) problem and it has the highest possum population in the country."
Mr Condon claimed killing possums with aerial drops of 1080 poison was costing the state $20 a possum, while Dawson Furs had created employment and turned the pest into exports worth $3 million last year.
"Government authorities are wasting a resource which could help solve this country's unemployment issues," he says.