Daka SecAnim made it through the 2020 mink season
11.01.2021
Just before Christmas, on 20 December, the mink hall was emptied of its last animals, bringing to a close a year in which mink became the subject of national interest as never before. Despite the many newspaper headlines and general debate about the handling of the mink crisis, the season went according to plan at the Daca factory.
“Apart from the extra security measures, it was actually a quiet season for us and we finished a few weeks earlier than expected. We had a lot of mink with fur this year, which has created challenges with capacity, as the fur behaves differently in the production equipment and takes up much more space than mink without fur. This year, the minks have also been chilled with ice to keep the temperature around 5°C to optimise quality and minimise odour problems,” says factory manager Martin Botolf Sejer.
Big team effort
With the high attention on mink and handling of both infected mink and mink from fringe zones, the season at Daka has been different this year. It has required a team effort among employees to handle the many extra tasks that had to be carried out to ensure hygiene.
“It’s been a burden on staff to have to deal with an infectious disease and the responsibilities that come with it. The employees have been very aware that they have been doing a very special task and have put safety before everything else,” says the plant manager, mentioning that external assistance was also called in to help clean and disinfect the containers.
A major role in a major effort
Daka also played a major role in transporting culled mink away from the herds in an extremely short period of time.
“We estimate that about two-thirds of all mink, including skinned mink from healthy herds, were transported to the factory in Assentoft and processed and used for biodiesel, biofuel and fertiliser. This has also helped to reduce the number of mink that had to be buried,” says Per Dunkelskov Thomsen – Communications Director at Daka.
A future without mink
It was a peaceful Christmas holiday for Daka’s employees this year, and now they have to prepare for a future without mink.
“The coming autumn will be different from what we have been used to, and we will be running fewer weekends from week 45-52 in 2021. The new situation also means that we will have to consider what to do with the mink shed that was built in 2019. Now that the hall is there, we obviously hope that it can be used for some sensible purpose that does not contribute to increased noise risks,” Per concludes.