A demand for fur by a growing middle class in Russia and China, and a return of fur in Western fashions, have led to record prices for mink pelts.

'They have money to spend, they want something special.'— Peter Peters

Peter Peters has been farming mink since he came to Prince Edward Island from Holland 20 years ago, and markets have never been better for him.

"The price went up a couple of years ago because of the Chinese market," said Peters.

Peter Peters keeps 6,000 mink at his farm in Fortune.
(CBC)

"In the Chinese market there's so many more people getting in the middle class. They have money to spend, they want something special, and that's why they go in the fur industry. They like to pick up a fur coat."

It's not just foreign markets that are leading to record prices for pelts, which have reached $80 US apiece. Fur has made a big comeback in North America too. It's a big change from the 1980s and 90s, when economic times and a vocal anti-fur campaign combined to do serious damage to the industry.

Some high-profile models were part of campaign in the 1990s saying they'd rather go naked than wear fur, and most celebrities shunned fur at the time. But now the fashion runways are full of it, and so are the stores and the pages of fashion magazines.

Fur is making regular appearances on fashion runways.

Peters thanks the P.E.I. government for getting the industry through the hard times.

"They gave us an interest-free money to stay in business because banks were reluctant to support us," he said.

"At that time the fox industry was much larger than the mink industry, and the fox industry never really came back."

Peters doesn't believe anti-fur campaigners will be a threat to the industry again.

"We have a beautiful business, a good business," he said.

Peters believes the influence of anti-fur protestors is past its peak.

"Anti-fur people have their own use, but if you see with the seal hunt for instance, Paul McCartney came over and he was protesting the seal hunt and the seal price went up 30 to 40 per cent. So it's just a small group of people who are against something."

In the past five years mink production on P.E.I. has gone from 60,000 pelts a year to 100,000 this year. Nationally the numbers have almost doubled to 2.2 million pelts.

And as fashion designers go back to fur and more and more affluent Chinese and Russians demand it, it is expected the fur industry will continue to grow.