Overview

We sell clean unprocessed A-Grade possum fibre, and possum-merino yarn, and we are looking for new markets around the world. The fibre is superbly warm and soft and makes beautifully soft yarn and felt. It is normally blended with merino in a 25%-75% ratio. Our business also has a serious environmental purpose: NZGK Possum fibre is the trading name for NZ Gamekeepers Ltd (New Zealand). This is a small two-person company: the directors are Guy Savidge (who is a professional trapper) and Elisabeth Frankish (who does the sales and marketing). The mission of NZ Gamekeepers Ltd is to carry out coordinated trapping of possums in New Zealand bush, to become a viable alternative to the current practice of aerial poisoning (by helicopters) of New Zealand native forests using 1080 poison. Our government has indicated that they will continue using aerial 1080 for conservation until there is a 'viable alternative'. And so, our mission is to create that viable alternative. We advocate conservation done by trappers working on the ground, in teams, with a game-keeping philosophy. Trapping is far better than using poisons for many reasons (which we list on our website). One reason is that poisoning wastes this beautiful natural fibre, fur and leather, while trapping enables the recovery of it. Presently, trappers are not adequately paid for their efforts meaning, there are few trappers, leading to more justification for using aerial poisoning. And so, we must find a way to pay our trappers properly. Our strategy is to market NZGK Possum Fibre on social media and send out sample boxes of our fibre and yarn to spinning and weaving guilds and textile engineers. We hope this will develop new markets, which in turn will enable us to pay our trappers properly, attracting more people into trapping, and enabling the industry to grow to such a point that we will be able to say to our government, "Here is the viable alternative to 1080".