FACT SHEET

FUR FARMING IN EUROPE

Fur farming in Europe is a key industry with a wide geographical impact

• Fur farming is mainly concentrated in the EU-15, principally Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands.
• Denmark is the largest producer of mink pelts in Europe and fur is the third largest
  agricultural export from Denmark.
• Finland is the largest producer of fox pelts in Europe.
• Fur is a key industry for new Member States such as Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
• Fur farming contributes significantly to rural development in certain European regions – such as Kastoria in Greece.
• Fur-farmed species cover minks (mustelidae family), fitches (mustela puterious family), foxes (vulpes and alopex families), finn raccoons (nyctereutes procyonoides family) and chinchillas (chinchilla laniger family).

SOME KEY FIGURES 2008

• 6,000 fur farms in the EU Member States.
• 57.8% (29.4 million pelts) of worldwide mink-fur production and 51.8% (2.3 million pelts) of worldwide fox-fur production come from European farms.
• China is the second largest worldwide producer of fur pelts and the biggest competitor to European fur farmers.
• It provides an efficient use of more than 1 million tones of animal by-products each year from the fishing and meat industries.
• The fur sector creates up to 60,000 full-time jobs in Europe.
• The value of EU farmed fur amounts to €1.5 billion.