For decades, Antonis Disios’ workshop was abuzz with the sound of sewing machines stitching fur coats for his wealthy Russian buyers. In March, European Union sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine war shut the business overnight.
Disios, like hundreds of other fur businesses in the lakeside city of Kastoria, was banned from exporting to Russia, the main market for Greece’s fur industry. With no domestic market, he sent his 23 workers home and his stockrooms filled up with hundreds of unsold garments.
“This city is going through its worst,” Disios said, standing in his silent showroom. “We’re in despair.”
Holding up a coat he said cost 30,000 euros ($30,183) to make using one of the most expensive furs in the world, Russian sable, he urged the EU to exempt the industry from sanctions.
“They must set us free. Or they can come take them and sell them themselves,” Disios said.
Kastoria is the heartland of a centuries-old fur industry in Greece, Europe’s last remaining fur manufacturing centre and one of the few EU countries still allowing fur farming despite pressure from animal rights groups at home and abroad.
With the demise of Denmark’s huge fur industry during a coronavirus-driven mink cull, animal rights groups hope the cut-off from the Russian market could spell the end of the European fur market, which has already shrunk drastically in response to animal welfare campaigns.
And with a growing number of big fashion houses such as Gucci and Prada committing to not using real fur in the future, activists say the sanctions against Russia could help speed up the decline of an industry they call “morally bankrupt”.
“Russians have traditionally been big buyers. The war has obviously stopped that, which is extremely good news,” said Mark Glover, a spokesperson for Fur Free Alliance, a coalition of more than 50 animal protection groups around the world.
