COPENHAGEN (AP) — 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 yesterday.
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,” Mr. 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 Arabians began the boycott Jan. 26 after a flurry of cell phone text messages were sent calling for the move and after supermarkets put up signs telling consumers to stop buying Danish goods or removed products from their shelves.
Anger has spread over the 12 caricatures of the prophet Muhammad that were 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.
Placing ads appears to have worked for the Swiss food and drink giant Nestle. An Arab boycott of milk powder products made by the company subsided shortly after it ran a newspaper advertisement in Saudi Arabia explaining that its products were not made in Denmark, a company spokesman said yesterday.
“We corrected that wrong information, and within one or two days the situation normalized again, said Nestle spokesman Francois-Xavier Perroud.
Lego, one of Denmark’s best-known brands internationally, said the protests and boycotts had little impact.
“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 Friday, and tour operators have 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.
Iranian television reported that Commerce Minister Masoud Mirkazemi has announced that as of today, no more permits will be issued for importing Danish consumer goods. Merchants who import Danish goods, including medicine, will be given three months to find alternate providers.
Iran also will apply a higher tax rate and higher tariffs on Danish cargo ships in Iranian ports, and all trade negotiations with Denmark will be suspended.
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