COPENHAGEN, April 14, 2008 (AFP) - Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller warned Monday that the reprinting of a controversial cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed in Danish media would lead to a lengthy boycott of Danish goods in the Middle East.
The boycott will be "long-lasting, and could lead to lasting losses," he told financial daily Boersen.
Consumers in the Middle East have boycotted the Danish-Swedish dairy group Arla Foods' products since at least 17 Danish newspapers in February republished a Danish cartoonist's caricature featuring the prophet's head with a turban that looked like a bomb with a lit fuse.
The newspapers decided to reprint the cartoon, first published in 2005 along with 11 others, after Denmark's intelligence agency uncovered a plot to kill the cartoonist.
The 12 cartoons sparked violent protests across the Muslim world in early 2006, and led to a boycott that time too that caused Arla Foods a loss in earnings of some 450 million kroner.
"The boycott (this time) is the choice of the consumers. It's not a political boycott, like it seemed to be last time. This is something that could drag on for a long time," Moeller said.
Arla Foods said last week that turnover was only at half the level expected so far this year, and if the trend were to continue for the full year the loss in earnings would amount to 1.3 billion kroner (174.28 million euros, 274 million dollars).
Neither the Danish foreign ministry, the Confederation of Danish Industries (DI), nor the Danish Agricultural Council have provided an estimate for the losses incurred because of the boycott this time.
The 2006 boycott in the Middle East led to a 28 percent drop in exports, or 990 million kroner, in the February to June period compared to the same period a year earlier, according to DI.
sa/po/nl/mb
Denmark-Mideast-food-Islam-media-consumer
The boycott will be "long-lasting, and could lead to lasting losses," he told financial daily Boersen.
Consumers in the Middle East have boycotted the Danish-Swedish dairy group Arla Foods' products since at least 17 Danish newspapers in February republished a Danish cartoonist's caricature featuring the prophet's head with a turban that looked like a bomb with a lit fuse.
The newspapers decided to reprint the cartoon, first published in 2005 along with 11 others, after Denmark's intelligence agency uncovered a plot to kill the cartoonist.
The 12 cartoons sparked violent protests across the Muslim world in early 2006, and led to a boycott that time too that caused Arla Foods a loss in earnings of some 450 million kroner.
"The boycott (this time) is the choice of the consumers. It's not a political boycott, like it seemed to be last time. This is something that could drag on for a long time," Moeller said.
Arla Foods said last week that turnover was only at half the level expected so far this year, and if the trend were to continue for the full year the loss in earnings would amount to 1.3 billion kroner (174.28 million euros, 274 million dollars).
Neither the Danish foreign ministry, the Confederation of Danish Industries (DI), nor the Danish Agricultural Council have provided an estimate for the losses incurred because of the boycott this time.
The 2006 boycott in the Middle East led to a 28 percent drop in exports, or 990 million kroner, in the February to June period compared to the same period a year earlier, according to DI.
sa/po/nl/mb
Denmark-Mideast-food-Islam-media-consumer