Fur farming refers to the breeding and raising of certain types of animals for their fur, primarily for their use in clothing and fashion. Production is concentrated in a relatively small number of countries. As of the 21st century, China has become one of the largest producers of farmed fur, while European countries have seen a decline due to regulatory changes . Most of the world's farmed fur is produced by Chinese and Polish fur-farmers. In 2018, there were 5,000 fur farms in the EU, located across 22 countries; these areas of production collectively accounted for 50% of the global production of farmed fur. However, by 2025 only 6 countries in the EU still farmed animals for fur, and three of these countries had issued a legal ban on the activity, effective within several years. Prior to their banning of fur-farming in 2025, Poland lead the European mink fur-farming industry. Only five countries in Europe still participate in the practice of fur farming, those being Finland, Denmark, Spain, Hungary and Greece. The United States is a major exporter of fur skins. Major export markets include China, Russia, Canada, and the EU. Exports to Asia as a share of total exports grew from 22% in 1998 to 47% in 2002. As of 2012, Russia was reported to be the world's biggest sales market for fur.
Demand fell in the late 1980s and 1990s as a result of a number of factors, including the efforts of animal rights campaigners and the failure of designers to come up with exciting new lines. Since the turn of the millennium, however, sales worldwide have soared to record highs, fueled by radically new techniques for working with fur, and a sharp rise in disposable income in China and Russia. This growing demand has led to the development of extensive fur farming operations in China and Poland. During the COVID-19 pandemic, mink turned out to be very susceptible to human–mink infection, sparking fears of widespread outbreaks and mutations in the mink farm populations of many countries that could in turn infect humans with different strains of the coronavirus, making it potentially immune for a COVID-19 vaccine. Several mink farms in the Netherlands have been entirely culled since June 2020, and in August 2020 the phaseout of fur farming was accelerated from 1 January 2024 to 1 March 2021. In July 2020, Spain culled 100,000 mink. On 6 November 2020, Denmark announced it would cull its entire 17 million mink population as an emergency measure to prevent the spread of a mutated strain of COVID-19, of which at least five cases were found. On 11 November, the Netherlands again moved the phase-out forward, now putting 1 January 2021 as the target date to limit the risk of mutation. Kopenhagen Fur (accounting for 40% of mink production worldwide) announced mid-November it would gradually cease operations in 2–3 years because the circumstances had critically undermined the future of the global fur trade. COVID-19 and other illnesses continue to threaten the fur farming industry, and the fur farming trade itself is a part of a larger discussion on the potential for yet another pandemic. Fur farming has faced criticism and increasing regulatory pressure due to animal welfare concerns. The recent 'Fur Free Europe' European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) gathered over 1.5 million validated signatures urging the EU to ban fur farming and the sale of farmed fur products. In response to the ECI, the European Commission tasked the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to provide an independent scientific opinion on the welfare of animals farmed for fur. The EFSA scientific opinion was published in July 2025 and concluded that the current cage systems of fur farming cannot meet the behavioral or welfare needs of mink, foxes, raccoon dogs and chinchilla.
History
While wearing fur clothing in cold weather as protection goes back to the Stone Age, the source for this material came from the wild. As human populations grew, furs, leathers, and hides for use in clothing came from farm stock, such as sheep (sheepskin), rabbits, cattle, pigs, and goats. Archaeologists have discovered evidence of red fox breeding in the late Iron Age on Orkney, off the northern coast of Scotland. After the attack of the Vikings in Scotland around 800 CE, the breeding is said to have stopped. The earliest records of breeding mink for fur in North America were in the 1860s . Foxes were first raised on farms for fur in Prince Edward Island in Canada in 1895. Historically, the fur trade played an important economic role in the United States. Fur trappers explored and opened up large parts of North America, and the fashion for beaver hats led to intense competition for the raw materials. Starting in the latter half of the 20th century, producers and wearers of fur have been criticized by animal rights activists because of the cruelty involved in animal trapping, and because of the widespread availability of inexpensive substitutes including natural fibers (such as cotton, hemp) as well as synthetic fibers. In 1991, New York Times journalist John F. Burns described the American fur industry as "shrinking with no end in sight." Today, 85 percent of the fur clothing industry's pelts come from animals raised on farms. The rest is from animals caught in the wild. The most farmed fur-bearing animal is the mink (50 million annually), followed by the fox (about 4 million annually). Asiatic and Finnish raccoon and chinchilla are also farmed for their fur. As of 2008, 64 percent of fur farms were in Northern Europe, 11 percent in North America, and the rest were dispersed throughout the world, in countries such as Argentina and Russia.
Species
Mink
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