Russia imports 65 pct of its fur from China

China supplies 65 percent of Russia's fur imports for a total value of about $2 billion annually, president of the Russian Fur Union said on Wednesday.

"China is already the world's largest producing country of fur, surpassing Russia," Stolbov Sergey, president of the Russian Fur Union, said at a China-Russia fur trade forum.

The fur industry in Russia has experienced a recession this season from November with its output reduced 30 percent by January comparing with a year earlier, he said.

Russia remains a main market for fur because of its cold weather, he added.

China's fur clothes exports declined 27.7 percent year-on-year in 2012 but exports to Russia increased 12 percent from a year earlier, said Cai Guiru, head of the Greenwood International Trade Center in Moscow, a major Chinese production trade center in Russia.

Cai said although the market is huge, some Chinese fur distributors still find it difficult to do business in Russia, partly because of the global economic slowdown but mainly because local residents now want higher quality.

"They moved to shopping malls and high-end shopping centers, rather than traditional markets," he said.

Chinese businessmen need to also change their business model, he added.