From January 1, 2027, a ban on keeping and breeding animals for fur production or sale will come into effect in Lithuania. Along with the sector’s closure, nearly a thousand people who have worked on farms for 15, 20, or more years will lose their jobs.
“We have worked here for years, devoted our strength, and now we are forced to live in uncertainty about the future,” write the employees of fur animal farms in an appeal to the country’s leaders.
In letters to the highest country leaders, employees do not hide that the greatest concern is not only the loss of work itself but also what awaits them after January 1. A large part of the farms operate in regions where finding another well-paid job is much more difficult than in big cities. The sector’s closure means not just a simple change from one workplace to another but a real risk of long-term unemployment, lower family income, or the necessity to look for work in another city or abroad.
Employees also raise the issue of the farms’ possibilities to reorient. According to them, currently, there is talk about farm closures and compensations, but not about a mechanism that would allow farms to change their business direction and thus preserve at least some of the existing jobs.
In the appeal to the country’s leaders and responsible institutions, it is stated that the current model essentially means the liquidation of farms, although a different compensation and transition mechanism could provide opportunities for businesses to reorient and retain employees.
“With this letter, we are not asking to repeal the laws – we are asking not to be forgotten,” the employees address the country’s leaders.
The letters request not general promises but concrete solutions before January 1 – to create real conditions for farms to reorient and preserve jobs, and where this is not possible, to foresee clear retraining, employment, and other support measures in advance.
Nearly a thousand families work in Lithuania’s fur animal sector, and this branch of the economy has so far generated about 100 million euros in export revenue per year. One of the country’s oldest economic branches is closing at a time when fur prices on the global market have sharply increased, and Lithuanian farm products are valued above the European average. The employees’ appeal also states that an independent expert assessment valued the business closure damage at nearly 64 million euros, while the farms themselves calculate it at more than 113 million euros, but the proposed compensation mechanism will cover only a few percent of the real losses for both them and the farm owners.
According to the employees, this means that along with the sector’s closure, not only specific jobs are lost but also the economic potential developed in the regions over many years. Work on the farms has been the only stable source of livelihood for them for many years, and people have built their family lives around it. Among the employees are many older people for whom re-establishing themselves in the labor market may be particularly difficult, as well as young families raising small children and having financial obligations.
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