Why China could be the big winner from mink cull in Denmark over Covid-19 fears
- Mink breeding has divided Denmark for years, and some see the cull over a mutated strain of Covid-19 in the animals as the perfect time to end it
- One expert sees a rise in mink production in China and Russia coming, but another expert says their pelts won’t match the quality of those Denmark produced
The sudden Covid-19-related culling of as many as 17 million mink in Denmark has shaken the fur industry.
Television footage shows breeders weeping outside their empty farms as thousands of dead mink are taken away to be transformed into biofuel. Because of the risk of infection, only around one third of the pelts can be saved. T he world’s largest fur auction house, Kopenhagen Fur, has announced that it will close by 2023 because of the cull.
So what led to this disastrous turn of events and do they mark a point of no return for the world’s biggest mink producer?
Despite the Danish government’s subsequent admission it had no powers to order the mass cull – something it vowed to correct by passing a new law – the minister in charge of agriculture urged all mink farmers to go ahead with the cull as a precaution, as did Tage Pedersen, the head of the Danish mink breeders’ association, reports cited by the BBC said. The need for the cull has led to reflections on the future of mink breeding and the fur fashion sector.
