Construction has begun on a 23,000 square metre mink farm just outside of Þorlákshöfn, which will soon house 10,000 mink, making it the largest such facility in the country.
The farm will cost an estimated 1.5 billion ISK to build and construction will begin in the spring, RÚV reports.
Never have their been more mink farms in Iceland. There are currently 28 farms, producing 180,000 furs annually. Foreign parties, like the Chinese, have also been showing interest in opening fur farming facilities in Iceland.
Chairman of the Union of Fur Farmers Björn Halldórsson noted that there is a bubble in the industry, but he doesn’t think it’s a problem since there are very experienced people in the sector, handling everything with care.
Mink farming’s last boom in Iceland occurred in the late 80’s, when optimistic predictions were made about doubling the fur output year over year and seeing the number of farms in the country increase to 600.
In the past years mink farming has been in the news for less than positive reasons, namely pollution and animal abuse allegations.
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