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Boycott costs danish companies millions { February 6 2006 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1103AP_Denmark_Boycott_Effects.htmlhttp://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1103AP_Denmark_Boycott_Effects.html
Monday, February 6, 2006 · Last updated 8:52 a.m. PT
Boycott costs Danish companies millions
By JAN M. OLSEN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- The boycott of Danish goods called by Islamic countries to protest the publication of Prophet Muhammad caricatures is costing Danish businesses more than $1 million a day, analysts and companies said Monday.
So far, Arla Foods, one of Europe's largest dairy companies, is suffering most, but the effects could spread.
Steen Bocian, a chief analyst with Danske Bank, said Danish goods are threatened in 20 Muslim countries, representing $1.6 billion annually.
"However, seen in a macroeconomic perspective, that amount is rather small," Bocian said.
In 2004, Denmark's exports worldwide amounted to $73 billion, with 25 percent of that from dairy products, he said.
Overall, it's too early to say how much the boycott is hurting, said Marianne Castenskiold, a spokeswoman for the Confederation of Danish Industries, representing the country's major companies. Saudi Arabia began the boycott Jan. 26 when supermarkets either put up signs saying to stop buying Danish goods or removed products from the shelves.
Anger has spread over the 12 caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that were first published in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten in September and recently reprinted in European media and elsewhere in what the newspapers say is a statement of free speech.
One depicted the prophet wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse. The Danish paper said it had asked cartoonists to draw the pictures because the media were practicing self-censorship when it came to Muslim issues.
The drawings have touched a raw nerve in part because Islamic law is interpreted to forbid any depictions of Islam's most revered figure for fear they could lead to idolatry.
Arla Foods is losing an estimated $1.6 million per day in the boycott, spokeswoman Astrid Gade Nielsen said.
The Danish-Swedish cooperative, which placed ads in Saudi newspapers last week to try to counter the boycott, has $430 million in annual sales in the Middle East and about 1,000 employees in the region, its main market outside Europe.
The boycott of its products was almost total in the region, Gade Nielsen said.
Lego, one of Denmark's best-known brands internationally, said the protests and boycotts had had little consequence.
"The region is a very small market for us," Lego spokeswoman Charlotte Simonsen said. "We have been told that some shops in the Middle East have removed our products from the shelves."
The privately held group doesn't market its toys as being Danish - "Lego is an international brand" she said.
Danish tour operators, meanwhile, have canceled trips to Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia following warnings by Denmark's Foreign Ministry urging people to avoid predominantly Muslim countries.
Denmark's weeklong winter school holiday starts on Friday and tour operators have already begun reimbursing people for holiday trip reservations for the Middle East, said Stig Elling of Star Tours.
"We're talking about millions," said Lars Thykier of the Danish Travel Association, adding that resorts in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia also were losing money because Danish tourists are staying away.
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