Danish mink breeding has gone to the grave.
The breeders are now compensated with up to 19 billion Danish kroner.
- A fair and reasonable compensation so that the mink breeders can move on, says Morten Bødskov (S), Acting Minister of Finance.
Mink breeding was an export industry with a turnover of DKK 4.9 billion per year.
Denmark was a world leader in the field, but now it is just a memory.
The government has banned mink breeding and the mink population is being killed.
But the mink breeders will not be completely without lots.
1,000 mink farms
After several months of negotiations, the government has presented an agreement in which breeders are compensated with up to DKK 18.8 billion, approximately SEK 26 billion.
The exact amount is not clear as there were about 1,000 mink farms in the country that require individual assessment.
The agreement includes a plan where breeders can have mink again when the corona crisis is over, if they so wish.
Tage Pedersen, chairman of the trade association Danske minkavlere, is happy that the agreement is ready but wants to review it before he fully assesses it.
- We have to look at all the individual parts first, he says.
Must be approved by the EU
First, the mink agreement must be approved by the European Commission.
-We have a very good and close dialogue with the European Commission and I think we will get a good agreement with them, says Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Rasmus Prehn.
It was in November last year that the Danish government decided to kill the mink population in Denmark, about 17 million animals, to prevent the spread of a mutation in the coronavirus.
It turned out to have no legal basis and led to a scandal in which the then Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Mogens Jensen (S) resigned.
In December, a bill was passed to allow the killing.