Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0109/01094.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 17KB | 306 lines

$Unique_ID{COW01094}
$Pretitle{411}
$Title{Denmark
What Danes Produce for a Living}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Henning Dehn Nielsen}
$Affiliation{Ministry of Foreign Affairs}
$Subject{danish
danes
denmark
world
years
cent
per
home
day
big}
$Date{1990}
$Log{}
Country:     Denmark
Book:        Facts about Denmark
Author:      Henning Dehn Nielsen
Affiliation: Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Date:        1990

What Danes Produce for a Living

     If Danes today have a higher standard of living than most other
countries, they owe it to a way of economic life that works effectively and
usually has managed to adjust itself to fluctuating conditions.

     INDUSTRY: Denmark has a reputation for being among the world's foremost
agricultural countries, and this is still so, but over the past decades
industry has overtaken agriculture with respect to exports.

     It is characteristic of Danish industry to be overwhelmingly composed of
smaller and medium-sized companies with a strong ability to adapt to market
demands and with a flair for strict product-quality control. Because Denmark
is totally lacking in raw materials, it has been obliged to concentrate its
resources on light industry, where the human factor plays a big role in
production. To name just a few examples, Denmark is strong in the production
and export of furniture, handicrafts, medical goods, automatic cooling and
heating devices, and sensitive measuring instruments. Not forgetting Danish
beer, which is appreciated all over the world.

     Another characteristic of Danish industry is that it has been able to
find niches in world markets, where a strong presence has been created.
Children throughout the world play with small bricks from Lego, while within
the stereo and television sector, Bang & Olufsen's flair for sublime design
has created a line of products distinctive enough to be displayed at the
Museum of Modern Art in New York.

     The most notable exception to what was earlier said about the size of
Danish industrial concerns is Danfoss, which employs 12,000 and primarily
manufactures automatic cooling and heating devices.

     AGRICULTURE: The structure of Danish agriculture has undergone an almost
revolutionary transformation within the last generation. While just 20 to 30
years ago there were more than 200,000 farms, the figure today, after mergers
and closures, has shrunk to just about 100,000 and only six per cent of the
population is employed in agriculture, compared with 20 per cent previously.
But on the contrary the most stringent rationalisation methods have ensured a
production bigger than ever before.

     The success of Danish farming to a large extent derives from the fact
that its practitioners in every respect are well-informed and well-trained in
their jobs, thanks preferably to a number of agricultural colleges. It has
also proved of great importance that farmers from an early stage formed their
own cooperative societies in dairy produce, slaughterhouses and other
communal business ventures, as well as in the field of exports.

     FISHERIES: Denmark is the country with the largest fish catches in the
EC. Small and larger fishing harbours dot the Danish coast at short intervals,
and 3,300 boats of many different sizes, manned by 10,000 fishermen, bring
their catches home from the North Sea, the Kattegat, the Baltic, and via the
largest vessels from the North Atlantic.

     Even if Danes are big fish-eaters, 90 per cent of the catch is exported.
Fresh Danish fish for eating is brought to the big European cities from day to
day, but the bulk is processed by the fisheries industry into frozen or canned
fish of a wide variety. Fishing also forms an important source of income for
both Greenland and the Faroes - for the latter to an overwhelming extent.

     SHIPPING: The Danish merchant fleet's current 600 vessels bring their
income home from the world's oceans in sharp competition with the other
seafaring nations. The ships today are fewer in number than some years ago,
but by contrast more advanced, and to a large degree comprised of modern
container-ships and tankers. The A.P. Moller/Maersk Group is the dominant
factor among Danish shipping companies, and with its more than 100 vessels one
of the largest shipping groups in the world.

     Danish ship officers get to know the ropes on the training vessel
"Danmark", which from its numerous voyages is well known in ports on both
sides of the Atlantic.

     AIR TRAFFIC: Denmark, together with Sweden and Norway, is part-owner in
the carrier Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), which flies throughout Europe,
to the United States and large parts of the rest of the world. Certain Danish
airlines - Sterling Airways, Conair and Maersk Air - operate mostly charter
traffic with Scandinavian tourists heading south on holiday. A dozen domestic
flight routes via Danair connect Copenhagen with Funen and Jutland, with
flying times between the capital and the rest of the country normally not
exceeding 30-45 minutes.

     Copenhagen's airport lies on the outskirts of the city, close to the
Sound and just 10 km from the centre. It is Europe's fifth-largest airport
and is used by all the large international airlines.

     INTERNATIONAL TRADE: In the very old days, the Danish state operated
trading stations in Africa and India, and Danish ships returned home with
exotic goods from the Far East. Also today a lively trading activity is
displayed by the Danish side in many parts of the world. Best known in this
connection is The East Asiatic Company, which was founded in 1897 and today
runs trading, production and shipping operations on a global basis with 122
subsidiaries, 34 associate companies and with altogether some 30,000 employed
throughout the world.

     ENERGY: Industries and households in Denmark by tradition have covered
their energy requirements through imports of coal and oil, and nobody would
have dared to dream that Denmark one day would be in a position to pump ashore
oil and gas from the North Sea. But in 1966, Danish Underground Consortium,
which had been established by shipping company A.P. Moller in cooperation
with several foreign oil companies, made its first find a couple of hundred
kilometres off the Danish coast, and drilling platforms were raised. The first
oil came ashore in 1972, and in 1984, gas began to stream in from the North
Sea and was distributed via a nationwide pipeline network. Production of both
North Sea oil and gas is increasing, and it is expected that within a few
years Denmark will be 50 per cent self-sufficient in oil and 100 per cent in
gas.

     There is in Denmark these days a big interest in the use of alternative,
non-polluting sources of energy, and one result of this has been the
mushrooming of windmills in their thousands throughout the Danish countryside,
often concentrated in so-called windmill parks. These mills are modern in
design and often of imposing height, rising up to 60 metres and with a
wingspan measuring 40 metres. They produce electricity to cover local needs
and sell any surplus output to the traditional supply networks. A windmill
technology of high standards has been developed, and Danish windmills are
exported to many parts of the world.

A Nation of Football Fans

     The red-white Danish football players became famous the world over, when
they fought their way through to the final rounds of, first, the European Cup
championships in France and, then, the World Cup championships in Mexico.
Prior to its departure for Mexico, the team was received by the royal family,
of whom particularly the young princes, Frederik and Joachim, are strongly
interested in soccer, and the nation almost came to a standstill while the
matches were being fought out.

     In the old days, Danish football was purely a sport for amateurs, but about
20-25 years ago some of the most successful Danish footballers let themselves be
tempted into joining professional Italian clubs, and others have followed since,
so that Denmark has beco