Denmark wants to continue breeding mink despite EU ban

Denmark, which was one of the world's leading mink farmers until 2020, refuses to give up on this activity. It is now demanding the right to continue it, even as the European Union (EU) has decided to gradually ban it.

On June 20, a majority of member states added mink to the list of species considered invasive within the Union. They therefore decided to ban the farming of this animal and the production of mink fur. Member states will have two years to comply, starting in 2027, the Danish news agency Ritzau reported at the time, quoted by the business newspaper Boersen .

Denmark, for its part, was among the countries that "voted against this EU regulation," Ritzau noted, without specifying which others were. The Scandinavian kingdom—which holds the EU Council presidency in the second half of 2025—has since requested to be able to benefit from a "special regime" so that mink can continue to be farmed there, as is also the case in seven other EU countries.

This Danish decision, which has not been publicly supported by any minister or political leader since, has caused incomprehension among those opposed to the exploitation of mink.

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