Recently, the US fur industry suffered a major blow when SC Johnson pulled all Kiwi mink oil from the shelves of retailers, and announced they would no longer be selling mink oil.
This news put a spotlight on this little-known revenue stream for fur farmers.
We are posting a document below which sheds some light onto the role of mink oil in the US fur industry. It was published by two Utah State University faculty members, and is titled: “An Initial Analysis of the Mink Oil Market: Preliminary Report to Morgan County, Utah.”
A few highlights:
“Emulon Company, located in Kenosha, Wisconsin, is possibly the nation’s largest processor of mink oil.”
“According to the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture,’ most of the mink fat in that state is rendered and sold as a low grade
oil used in livestock feed rations.”
“Emulon indicated that the volume of their mink oil business has been reduced substantially in recent years as a result of the
animal rights movement.Cosmetic companies are under pressure from animal welfare organizations to eliminate the use of animal
products in cosmetic manufacture.”
“Rosemary Collections, a company that manufactures and markets cosmetics, expressed a willingness to consider new vendors of
refined mink oil.”
“The Croda Company purchases highly refined mink oil and specializes in processing a triple refined mink oil product.”
(The document was published in 1994, so some of the info may no longer be relevant.)