A worker holds a blue fox at a jelly farm near the village of Babino, about 180 km outside … [+]
Wool producers have a controversial reputation. While fur coats and other fur clothing remain status symbols in many cultures, fur producers are under pressure for raising animals like mink in cruel conditions, for example in small cages, and generally for breeding and killing animals for a reason that is sometimes considered even more superfluous than growing them for meat.
While production in producing countries has decreased recently due to the culling of animals as a precaution against the spread of bird flu and Covid-19, wool farming has been identified as an industry in crisis overall. Some countries – mainly in Europe – have recently ended their production entirely, citing animal welfare reasons. Both of these have greatly shrunk global production. While it still exceeded 81 million mink and fox pelts in 2012 (and stood at almost 66 million in 2019), this had dropped to less than 15 million in 2023. Even outside Europe, fur farmers have complained of falling demand between wider awareness of animal abuse and farming practices.
This chart shows countries by number of fox and mink pelts produced in 2023.
After several exits from fur producing countries in recent years, who are the largest producers of mink and fox pelts in the world? While some countries on the list put together by the Finnish Wool Breeders’ Association feel like expected contenders, others are surprising. However, with more bans pending, the industry could see more changes in the near future.
Animals used for fine fur are often associated with cold weather and so is the wearing of coats. Russia, Poland, Canada and Finland are among the world’s largest producers of mink and fox, but so are China, the United States, Greece and Spain. China was by far the largest producer with an output of 3.5 million mink and fox pelts in 2023, followed by Poland – also over three million – and Russia, the US and Greece all producing between one and two million peels per year. .
Mass exodus?
Recently, the Netherlands got out of fur farming. The ban in the mink-producing country ended in early 2021 after minks were killed due to Covid-19 infections. Norway, like Finland, a major producer of fox pelts, banned fur farming in 2018 after evidence of animal welfare violations emerged. Fur farming has been illegal in the UK since 2003 and in Austria since 2005.
Smaller industries were also closed in Canada’s British Columbia, Ireland, Hungary and France, while bans will come into force in Romania, Latvia and Lithuania in 2027 and 2028. The latter three countries are small mink producers. A ban on mink farming has come into force in Bulgaria. Another ban failed last year in Sweden, but an EU-wide ban could be imposed next year, which has the potential to profoundly change the industry once again. Spain is also phasing out mink farming, while Greece, traditionally a producer for the Russian market, has not adopted such measures. However, the Greek fur industry is in deep trouble due to Russian sanctions.
Similar to the previous development in Norway, the inhumane living conditions discovered on local farms have meanwhile led to proposals to ban wool farming in the Polish parliament. Another major European producer, Finland, has declared its industry to be of “high welfare”, but violations have repeatedly surfaced. This resulted in more petitions to parliament, putting the future of wool farming in two other producing countries at risk.
Compiled by Statista
