(Yicai Global) Nov. 5 -- Minks owned by Danish subsidiaries of Huasi Holding, a Chinese producer of furs and leather clothing, will be killed because the European country ordered a nationwide cull after a mutated version of the coronavirus that can pass to humans was found at mink farms.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said yesterday that all minks in the country must be killed because the situation was “very, very serious.”The world’s biggest mink fur-producing country plans to slaughter as many as 17 million of the animals to prevent the mutated virus spreading further into the human population. At least 12 people have been infected.

Huasi’s wholly owned units Proud City Denmark Agri, Proud City Denmark, and Proud City Enterprises will abide by the government’s decision and destroy their mink, the Hebei province-based company said in a statement today. The units’ consumable biological assets were worth CNY16.9 million (USD2.5 million) as of Sept. 30, accounting for just under 1 percent of their net assets.

But Huasi’s shares [SHE: 002494] rose as much as 2.7 percent in trading today, ending 1.4 percent higher at CNY4.4 (67 US cents) apiece.

Denmark’s Economics Minister Simon Kollerup has promised to provide future support to mink breeders to repurpose their farms, according to Huasi’s statement.

Huasi’s main products include leather, fur, feathers and goods made out of them. For the first three quarters of this year, the firm posted a net loss of CNY93.44 million on a 40 percent slide in revenue to CNY187 million from a year earlier.