Global Fur Production in Drastic Decline
While output in producing countries has decreased recently due to the culling of animals as a precaution against the spread of the avian flu and Covid-19, fur farming has been identified as an industry in crisis more generally. Some countries - mainly in Europe - have recently ended their production entirely, citing animal welfare reasons. Both of this has shrunk global production majorly. While it still surpassed 81 million mink and fox pelts in 2012 (and stood at almost 66 million in 2019), this had decreased to fewer than 15 million in 2023. Even outside of Europe, fur farmers have complained about falling demand amid broader awareness of animal mistreatment and farming practices. The world's largest producer, China, has seen production volumes fall on this background, another factor majorly influencing global production.
The Netherlands, for example, recently exited fur farming. The ban in the mink-producing country ended up coming early in 2021 after mink were killed due to infections with Covid-19. Norway, like Finland a major producer of fox pelts, banned fur farming in 2018 after evidence of animal welfare violations surfaced. Fur farming has been illegal in the United Kingdom since 2003 and Austria since 2005. Smaller industries were also shut down in Canada's British Colombia, Ireland, Hungary and France, while bans will come into effect in Romania, Latvia and Lithuania in 2027 and 2028. The three latter countries are minor producers of mink. A ban on mink farming has come into effect in Bulgaria.
Another ban failed last year in Sweden, but an EU-wide ban could be decided on next year, which has the potential to change the industry profoundly once more. Spain is also phasing out mink farming, while Greece, traditionally a producer for the Russian market, has not adopted such measures. Nevertheless, the Greek fur industry is in deep trouble due to Russian sanctions.
Similar to the earlier development in Norway, inhumane living conditions discovered at local farms have meanwhile led to proposals of banning fur farming in Polish parliament. Another major European producer, Finland, has touted its industry as "high-welfare", but infraction have surfaced repeatedly. This resulted in more petitions to parliament, putting the future of fur farming in jeopardy in two more major producing countries.