Stu Bracegirdle has had a busy few days after he started offering $120 per kilogram of possum fur. (File photo)

As the challenge to make Taranaki predator free begins, a man whose business depends on pests is busier than ever.

In fact, since Stu Bracegirdle of Egmont Skins and Hides Ltd in Inglewood, posted on Facebook that he'd pay $120 per kilogram of possum fur, business has been going through the roof.

"One guy got 60-odd [possums]," he said. "People are going nuts."



Depending on the size of a possum, which Bracegirdle can take fresh or frozen, it can take up to 20 possums to get a kilogram of fur, or as few as 12.

SIMON O'CONNOR/FAIRFAX NZ Bracegirdle has been working with possums since he was a young boy, but only plucking and skinning them for a couple of decades.

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Customers have the option of plucking the fur from the possum themselves, or selling the bodies to Bracegirdle for $5.

SIMON O'CONNOR/FAIRFAX NZ Bracegirdle said the aim of making Taranaki predator-free by 2050 is "a joke".

At the end of May the Government announced it would contribute $11.7 million over five years to the $47m project to make Taranaki New Zealand's first predator-free region by 2050.

The initiative began a mere week later and urban trapping workshops have already started.

Bracegirdle, who sourced his possums from Taranaki hunters - young and old - believed the predtor-free goal was "a joke".

"Of course it will affect my business," he said. "I'm not worried though. It'll still be good for a few years."

Bracegirdle can only use possum fur from possums that are shot, trapped or killed with cyanide. Those that die from eating pesticide 1080, the poison that is widely used on Egmont National Park, are useless to him.

The Inglewood man said he thought a bounty killing system - a payment or reward for each kill - was the "best way of doing things".

The price of fur was seasonal and fluctuates from year to year. Around five years ago he was paying $145 for a kg.

"The market is different every winter," he said. "The price will stay where it is now until the end of winter."

Bracegirdle said he sold his fur to a company called Basically Bush, which then sold the fur on to be mixed with sheep wool and turned into yarn.

"You wouldn't even know it's possum," he said.

Bracegirdle, 66, isn't sure how many more years he'll be in the possum-plucking business, but says he'll go for as long as he can.

He said that if Taranaki ends up pest-free in the next five years, he'll have to look into keeping himself busy in other ways - "not that that will happen though".