Colour Variants: A Market Perspective

The popularity of colour variants such as the golden wildebeest and black impala skyrocketed in the South African game market in 2000, and their prices reflected this. Fourteen years later, these prices dropped just as precipitously. Dr Flippie Cloete, head of Terratek at Suidwes Landbou, takes a look at the drivers that influence the price movements of colour variants.

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During the 1990s, growth in the wildlife industry was driven by the economic and ecological benefits derived from plains game species.

At the time, these species provided landowners with a more profitable land-use option than traditional livestock farming. As a result, the value of plains game species continued to increase on the back of producers showing great interest in stocking new wildlife ranches on marginal land previously used for the production of livestock.

This trend peaked around 2000, with new land for wildlife production becoming increasingly scarce. In addition, the demand for, and hence the average prices of, plains game species were also affected by economic pressures in the broader wildlife and hunting industries. These included the relatively strong exchange rate at the time, the global economic slowdown, and changes to firearm legislation in South Africa.

PRICE SQUEEZE

All of this resulted in a cost-price squeeze for ranchers whose business models were purely based on the consumptive (hunting) and non-consumptive use of plains game. This financial pressure provided an impetus for a shift in focus towards the breeding of higher-value species, which were limited in number. This scarcity, coupled with growing demand, led to an increase in price, which yielded significant financial gains.

To put it simply, scarcity underpinned most of the initial growth in the market for higher-value species.