Following a new assessment showing a lower market price for mink skins than previously estimated, the Radical Left (Radikale Venstre) and the Socialist People’s Party (SF) are now pushing to reopen the existing compensation agreement for mink farmers. This agreement was reached in 2021 as part of the compensation for the shutdown of the mink industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a compensation and valuation commission, the most likely price for a mink skin is now 247 Danish kroner, which is significantly lower than the 333 kroner per skin on which the compensation was originally calculated. This difference of 86 kroner per skin could potentially reduce the total compensation bill by up to 8.7 billion kroner.
“It’s a scandal on top of a scandal,” says Christian Friis Bach, the food spokesperson for the Radical Left, to the media outlet Zetland. He adds that the new amount should lead to a political discussion about adjusting the original agreement. Carl Valentin, the food spokesperson for the Socialist People’s Party, shares this frustration and sees an opportunity to change the agreement. “I hope that this can help create some momentum for us to actually make changes to this agreement,” he says.
Despite these concerns and criticisms, Jacob Jensen, Minister for Food, Agriculture, and Fisheries from the Liberal Party (Venstre), emphasizes that the government stands by the original agreement. “The agreed price for the skins, which we politically agreed on, forms the basis for the compensation that has already been paid in advance to mink farmers and in the first cases of final shutdown compensation,” he explains in a written response to Zetland.
The debate about the mink agreement and the size of the compensations continues, as political parties and mink farmers await further developments in the case.