FOCUS DENMARK

VOL. 4 2005

Colophon

Title:
FOCUS DENMARK

Subtitle:
VOL. 4 2005

Publisher:
Udenrigsministeriet

Language:
English

URL:
http://www.netpublikationer.dk/um/6249/index.htm

Version/edition:
27-01-2006

Data formats:
html,htm,jpg,gif,pdf,css,js

Publisher category:
statslig

Table Of Contents

COMMANDING PRECISE SPRAYING

WASHING AND POLISHING VEGETABLES

ROBOTS CLEAR THE WEEDS

STANDARD LIVESTOCK HOUSING IN MODULES AND QUALITY PLASTIC

PRECISE DELIVERY OF FOOD

EURO-FARM – THE STABLES OF THE FUTURE

THE FLOOR MEET STRINGENT DEMANDS FROM THE FOOD BUSINESS

AGROMEK – THE LARGEST AGRICULTURAL FAIR IN NORTHERN EUROPE

TRANSPORTING POWDER USING AIR PRESSURE

WORLD-CLASS ABATTOIRS

DANISH MILK POWDER TO CHINA

FROM ABATTOIR TO GLOBAL FOOD COMPANY

DANISH MEANS STRYHN’S

ALMONDS AND SUGAR THE WORLD’S MOST ELEGANT SWEET

BUILDING MONUMENTS OF ICE CREAM

QUALITY AND GASTRONOMY FROM THE MARSHLANDS

HUNTING HALIBUT THE TRADITIONAL WAY

FLOWN FROM SEA TO TABLE

DANISH ECONOMY DOING JUST FINE

NEW TYPES OF MILK ON THE WAY

COMMANDING PRECISE SPRAYING

AGRICULTURAL MACHINES: Spraying with plant protection agents becomes more precise than ever with an intelligent new package from Hardi International which scooped a silver medal at Agritechnica 2005 in Hanover

At the world’s largest agricultural machinery fair Agritechnica 2005, held in November in Hanover, the Danish manufacturer of sprayers for plant protection, Hardi International A/S was awarded a silver medal for an epoch-making development of the trailed sprayer “Commander i”. The new model has an intelligent package which makes spraying plant protection agents the safest and most precise ever.

     “We have developed a number of features for our Commander which primarily protect the farmer and the environment, but which in addition make spraying more precise than ever,” says marketing manager Peter Dahl, Hardi International A/S. “The operation of the sprayer has on several points become so sophisticated, that the farmer does not come into physical contact at any time with the chemicals he sprays. In addition, we have developed a system for automatic washing of the machine as well as several other technical features. The patented SafeTrack is a function where the trailed sprayer automatically follows the tractor tracks. It turns accurately and the sprayer boom levels automatically in relation to the crops even on strongly sloping areas.”

Simple and safe
The new Commander complies with general developments in the agricultural sector and the European agricultural sector in particular. In Europe alone, the sector is reducing by around 100 farmers every day. Farms are merging, and in the future there will be considerably fewer farmers managing the same total land area. This structural development makes large demands on manufacturers.

     “It has been essential to us to make the operation of the new Commander as simple and as safe as possible,” says Peter Dahl. “Increasing numbers of the people who operate the machines are untrained. It is thus important that the machines are more self-automated, and that operation is logical and functional.”

Among the leaders
Hardi International A/S is among a handful of global players on the sprayer market who collectively cover more than 50% of the market; Hardi’s share of the world market is just over 10%. The company manufactures in Denmark, France, Spain, USA and Australia and also has sales companies in Sweden, Germany, Poland, Austria, Russia and UK. France is by far the largest market in Europe. In addition to trailer sprayers and self-steering sprayers, Hardi produces a large range of backpack lever operated sprayers, wine and fruit sprayers as well as special equipment. This primarily includes nozzles of any kind which make farmers able to spray precisely, regardless of the crop.

The air controls the drops
One of the many patents assigned to Hardi International A/S is the Twin boom, where via a controllable wall of air the plant protection agent can be placed exactly where it is required, regardless of wind conditions. The air nozzles can also lift the leaves of potato plants so that it is possible to spray under the leaves. Tests carried out with Hardi’s Twin boom have demonstrated that up to 30% of plant protection agents can be saved by Ôblowing’ them correctly towards the plants. Twin sprayer booms can be supplied in sizes from 18 to 30 meters in width.

The nozzles are the brain   Hardi International A/S is the only company among the world’s manufacturers of spraying equipment which conducts research into all the challenges of spraying technology. This includes the sprayer itself, chassis, pump and the liquid system, nozzles and how the liquids spray most efficiently. As a spraying specialist, Hardi also focuses strongly on the human environment around the machines. The nozzle is the brain of the sprayer. It measures the amount of fluid, manages the distribution of liquid in the required spraying pattern and atomizes the liquid into efficient drops adjusted to the crop and weather conditions. The development of a new nozzle can take up to two years. The research is conducted in the company’s nozzle laboratory and is carried out by specialists who have practical experience and conduct research in collaboration with a network of external research facilities, environmental authorities, factory inspection authorities and farmers.

WASHING AND POLISHING VEGETABLES

AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY: Potatoes used to be pulled up by hand. Then the machinery rolled up. Then the potato washer arrived, and now the polishing machine for both potatoes and carrots. Consumers want vegetables to put straight in the pot.

Not many years ago, potatoes were something with soil on that you bought in big sacks. One then faced the tedious task of washing and peeling them at home in the kitchen. That routine lasted right up to the day when Ekko Maskiner in Denmark developed a potato cleaner to wash and sort potatoes at the farm. Now consumers have taken to these nice clean potatoes with enthusiasm.

Meeting demands
Today Ekko Maskiner has taken a step further by launching a polishing machine which makes potatoes directly useable from the supermarket.

     “The machine can also polish carrots,” says director Kim Guldborg Petersen of Ekko Maskiner in Bredsten, Denmark. “The purchasing managers of the large supermarket chains are tough. If they can get goods which look better on the shelves, they want them. There is a strongly increasing market for washed and polished fresh vegetables, packed in portions, directly ready for cooking. We are so busy that we can hardly keep up with the demand. The farmers growing the vegetables also see the writing on the wall. If they want to survive, and that means meeting the requirements of purchasing managers, they have to invest.”

     The washing, sorting and polishing machinery of Ekko Maskiner is sold all over the world, with markets such as New Zealand and Australia being the first to take an interest in the polishing machine for potatoes and carrots.

Collaboration
“Our success is based on the innovation related to the actual machine, and also to an excellent collaboration with the Danish companies Asalift and Newtec which respectively produce carrot harvesters and packaging machinery. Newtec’s computer controlled packaging machines have made the company into the largest in the world in that area.” In recent years, Ekko Maskiner has seen growth rates between 10% and 15%. This year growth will be even higher following the introduction of the polishing machine.

http://www.ekkoas.dk

ROBOTS CLEAR THE WEEDS

WEED CONTROL: Robots will soon be weeding the fields because they are good at it. Less weed killer will be used and more ecological gains made with robots in the field.

In the future robots will be pulling, cutting or burning weeds away in order to significantly reduce the use of chemical weed killers. They are not yet sufficiently reliable or efficient to put into production. But according to Michael Nørremark, who researches robot-based weed control at The Department of Agricultural Sciences, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Denmark, robots will be seen in the fields within the next ten years.

     “We expect that robots can reduce the use of weed killer by 75-100% with vegetables like potatoes, maize and beet which are planted in lines. We have calculated that regarding line crops, up to 280 tonnes of weed killer was used in 2003. If the robots meet expectations, they will be able to save line crops, the environment and consumers more than 200 tonnes of weed killer use every year,” says Michael Nørremark.

Expensive ecology
The price of organic vegetables and potatoes will probably also decrease when robots weed the fields, because it is expensive to have a person doing the weeding. Michael Nørremark expects that robots will take over between 50 and 100% of the weeding work which organic farmers currently do by hand with field vegetables and other line crops.

     Robots can remove the weeds between the plants for example in a line of beet. They can weed Ôin the line’ and not just between the lines like ordinary agricultural machines. That is a great improvement because today weeds in the line can only be controlled manually or with weed killer. To be able to weed in the line, the robot needs to know where the beets are. Michael Nørremark therefore registers where he plants the beets in the field by means of a very accurate GPS technology. He reads in the location of the seeds in a digital seed map, and then knows the position of the beets to an accuracy of 17 millimeters. Based on the seed map, Michael Nørremark can then programme the robot’s route through the field.

     If the robots need to weed very close to the beets, the digital seed map is not sufficiently accurate. To find the accurate position of the beet, the robot has to be able to see where the beet is located in the field:

Robot recognition
“Our collaboration partners at Research Centre Bygholm have developed an image processing programme enabling the robots to identify beets and other cultivated plants. The robot takes a digital image of the location where a beet should be placed according to the seed map. It knows the shape of the beet plant and can thus recognise the beets on the image. The robot then knows that it must remove the other plants, namely the weeds, says Michael Nørremark. “In the long term the robots will not only be able to recognise beets and other cultivated plants, but also various species of weed. This will mean that they can remove, for example, thistles and camomile which reduce the growth of the beet markedly, but leave harmless weeds such as corn speedwell. It will provide a greater diversity of plants and naturally benefit both insects and small animals.” Organic farmers in particular can benefit greatly from the weeding robots, because today their hoes can only be used to remove weeds between the lines. Weeding in the line means weeding by hand and that is expensive. If the robots meet expectations, they will be able to take over virtually all this weeding work, and thus bring about a significan reduction in prices for organic vegetables.

STANDARD LIVESTOCK HOUSING IN MODULES AND QUALITY PLASTIC

EFFICIENT AGRICULTURE: Danish producers of equipment for the agricultural sector constantly need to be ahead of the field. Denmark’s Ikadan Plast has found a niche producing livestock housing in standard modules which meet farmers’ needs for efficiency

It is an established fact that Danish farmers in general, and Danish pig producers in particular, are among the most efficient in the world. Productivity among Danish pig producers is higher than the closest competitors and many times higher than other places in the world.

     Since Denmark also has sky-high requirements on areas such as animal welfare, food safety and disease control, it is necessary that producers of equipment for Danish farmers are constantly at the cutting edge of developments in efficiency. And it is thus largely demands on animal welfare and efficiency that steer it, says Bjarne Kongsgaard, owner and director of the Ikadan Group, Ikast.

High technology
“We have gone against the outsourcing trend and have decided to produce in Denmark,” says Bjarne Kongsgaard. “High wages in Denmark have meant that we have invested in the most advanced machinery in our sector, and have a production plant that functions fully automatically with CNC robots and computer monitored production. This ensures high quality and low production costs for the benefit of our customers and the company. It is also a production plant which fits perfectly to standard modules,” says Bjarne Kongsgaard.

     Last year Ikadan introduced the new modular built pen system Multiflex, which consists of a number of standard modules with side panels, grated partitions as well as gates and mountings, where by and large everything is made from plastics. Multiflex is a highly flexible modular system which can be constructed to a pen system according to customer wishes. Experience gained from the injection moulded floor systems,

Ultraflex Grate System, led to the development of the partition system, Multiflex Panel System.

Innovative solutions
“Many manufacturers can make injection moulded plastic products, and we must thus constantly think innovatively and be in continuous dialogue with our customers,” Bjarne Kongsgaard points out. “We must know our customers’ daily challenges and think in solutions which ensure them additional value. So it is quality in combination with a competitive price which determine whether we become the preferred partner, which we are increasingly becoming.” The Multiflex Combiwall System, one of the many examples of Ikadan’s innovations, is a patented system which can give large savings on building costs. With the Multiflex Combiwall System, manure channel walls and partitions are quite simply constructed in one and the same element. “It gives large construction savings because only one large manure vessel needs to be made with drainage from the individual sections. The Multiflex panels are mounted directly on the channel base, and at floor level, bearings are mounted which support floor plates and grates.”

Flexibility
The self-supporting Multiflex Panel System is moulded as two shells separated with a cell structure on the back. The plates are then welded back to back so that the surface is closed on all sides, while at the same time the sandwich construction provides high strength and stability. It reduces the need for uprights and fixtures, and also gives pig producers a hitherto unknown level of flexibility for the layout of their livestock housing, which also becomes a lot easier to clean.

     Another example of one of Ikadan’s innovative solutions is a heating mat system for heating up the immediate surroundings of weaners. The heating mats are built into the floor construction and ensure the right temperature for weaners. The system can for example be built into Ikadan’s Ultraflex Grate System consisting of both draining as well as closed elements Ikadan continuously develops new surfaces that ensure optimal cleaning while at the same time the surfaces also satisfy pigs’ needs for softness and the preventing skidding.

Growth
“The large structural changes which are currently taking place in pig production in a number of countries, create a strong demand for livestock housing systems that meet demands for efficiency, as well as the requirements for animal welfare and food safety of authorities and consumers. So we can expect strong growth in the demand for our products in the coming years. Not just in Denmark, but equally on a large number of our export markets,” says Bjarne Kongsgaard, who comments that Ikadan today exports more than half of its production to more than 30 countries.

PRECISE DELIVERY OF FOOD

FEEDING SYSTEMS: There are big financial risks involved if a pig feeding system fails, and old systems often do. Daltec has seized the opportunity by developing a simple and reliable feed delivery system, without toothed wheels or V-belts, which delivers doses to each pig by means of small computers

A key factor in the economy of pig production is optimal exploitation of the feed. A proper feeding system is therefore essential. Thøge Dall recognized this back in 1978 when he established Daltec A/S. His career in the sector started by importing feeding systems from countries like the USA to Denmark, and the experience he gained convinced him that it was possible to do it much better.

Long service life
“A feeding system is basically a transport system,” says Thøge Dall, who today is still the managing director of Daltec A/S. “The feed needs to go from A to B in the right quantity, at the right time, and in the right mixture. What I experienced going around the farms, both with the 

systems I imported and sold, and with others, gave me the shivers. There was, and still is at many places, an enormous waste. The financial risk is huge if a feeding system fails and transport systems with for example toothed wheels and V-belts do fail far too often. A feeding system must be reliable and precise, and I have invented such a system.”

 
Two of Thøge Dall’s three sons, Michael and Christian, both trained civil engineers, are important staff at Daltec when it comes to developing computer programmes for controlling the feeding systems.

     Thøge Dall’s patented invention is based on a drive unit which runs a wheel with driving rings made of hard-wearing polymer. A transport wire of synthetic fibre with cast-on cable disks is pulled by means of friction between the driving rings and the cable disks. The system provides a uniform pull, which translates into a long service life and low maintenance.

Also for food
“Our unique friction system for conveying the feed is the simplest on the market,” says Thøge Dall. “In addition to the unique conveying system, Daltec’s flagship product is the portion feeding system. Computer controlled portion units together with an electronic “empty detector” in the feed dispensers, can control the individual portioning of feed to the individual sty. In this way the feed is individually adjusted to the pigs’ current appetite and growth stage. There will always be fresh feed in the dispensers because refilling occurs when the dispensers are almost empty.” Regarding supply of feed additives such as vitamins and minerals, Daltec has also developed dosage units. These have been developed for both “wet” and “dry” additives which can be difficult to dose. The challenge has been to construct a unit which can constantly dosage accurately.

     The friction transport system has also turned out to be highly suitable for the food industry. Daltec has sold a number of systems for transport of for example rice and coffee.

http://www.daltec.dk

Baby-Cup for piglets
In connection with the development of Daltec’s different feed systems, the company has marketed a unique drinking cup for piglets called Baby-Cup. The small water trough is shaped so it fits to the piglet’s needs. The drinking cup delivers 0.6 litre water per minute through a built-in flow regulator. This is exactly the rate at which a piglet can drink, so water waste is avoided as well as an unnecessary load on the slurry plant.

The piglets also avoid becoming stressed since the water trickles slowly into the cup, and not in large splashes which could frighten them. The cup’s round-cornered shape makes it easy to clean and difficult for bacteria to stick. The Baby-Cup also gets the piglets to drink earlier in their growth. It gives them more weight when they are weaned – and thus considerably improved profitability for the pig producer.

EURO-FARM – THE STABLES OF THE FUTURE

STABLE BUILDINGS: Standardised houses were first built for humans, now standardised stables are being built for livestock. Euro-Farm from Graakjær Staldbyg is a revolutionary building concept which reduces the cost of stable building by 30%

In spring 2005, Graakjær Staldbyg in Holstebro was awarded the Agromek Prize 2005 at northern Europe’s largest fair for agricultural technology, for its Euro-Farm building concept, the first ever standardised stable concept for pig producers.

     “We did know that we had launched a good project, but were actually slightly surprised that it was received that well, and that we had got it that right,” says John Graakjær, owner and director of Graakjær Staldbyg A/S. “On the other hand it just proves that we are those necessary couple of steps ahead.”

Thoroughly prepared
Structural changes in the agricultural sector are happening rapidly at present, both in Europe and a number of countries outside Europe. Production units become ever larger, and demands on production and working environment are sharpening – in particular for greater efficiency and increased earnings.

     To meet these requirements, Graakjær Staldbyg A/S initiated development work a couple of years ago, which has now resulted in the Euro-Farm concept.

     “There isn’t another agricultural project which is as thoroughly prepared as ours,” says John Graakjær. “For 18 months, eight of our people worked on the development project, which additionally involved interplay with many agricultural experts, architects and designers as well as suppliers of special equipment. The result has become a stable concept adapted to future requirements, where we have standardised everything from the width of the building to the slurry sluices, layout and roof.”

Prefabrication
“We have combined the individual elements in a new way so that a standard concept is achieved across types of livestock. Stable width and ceiling height are for example identical regardless of whether the stable are for sows, piglets or slaughter pigs, while all fixtures and divisions into sections are carried out in the building’s longitudinal direction. Floor, walls, ceiling and roof are built in elements which reduce construction time for the farmer by as much as 30%.” Most of the constructions are prefabricated indoors and supplied as assembly kits on the building site. It results in less dependency on weather conditions and authority controls, while at the same time ensuring better and more consistent quality.

     “Up to now stable building has been tailored to the individual pig producer,” says John Graakjær. “But if you look at the textiles industry – there are not many genuine tailors left. Standard products which fit to many people are produced. It is the same thing we have done with our stable concept. In addition to having optimised content and functionality, Euro-Farm is designed with a look created by architects and designers which fits into the surrounding landscape.”

Production guarantee
The Euro-Farm projects involve construction of buildings, stable layout and consultancy in connection with the production itself, including Graakjær Staldbyg’s guarantee of a given level of productivity with the right management.

“When we started development of the Euro-Farm concept, the principal idea was to make the concept as production-reliable as possible,” says John Graakjær. “We have combined our knowledge of pigs with layouts and solutions which are well-documented. We are thus able to link a production guarantee to the concept. If the result delivers less than what was expected, we are ready to offer help with commissioning the facility and following up on production.”

Key words
With a room height of 3 meters, the opportunity for floor extraction in all stable sections, and shared air purification via extraction channels, Euro-Farm creates a good working environment for the staff and good living conditions for the animals.

     “Standardisation has been a keyword for us,” says John Graakjær. “It is the only way to achieve competitive prices on stable buildings in the future, since custom-made stables will always be more expensive and not so optimised as a thought-through concept stable.”

     In the 30 years Graakjær Staldbyg A/S has existed, the company has built around 2,500 stables and industrial buildings. There are stable buildings from Graakjær in all Scandinavian countries, Germany, Poland, Holland and a number of central and eastern European countries.

Pioneers in Ukraine Ukraine could become the shop window for efficient future pig production with Euro-Farm as the centrepiece. Ukraine’s agricultural sector and agricultural authorities are so enthusiastic about Euro-Farm that up to 25 large pig farms based on John Graakjær’s building concept could become a reality in a few years. “There is a very large market in both Ukraine and Russia where a growing middle class makes ever increasing demands for better food products,” says John Graakjær. “All the conditions for building efficient pig production are present, and there is a great desire to invest. We proved that when 25 Ukrainian governors visited us in the spring. After the visit we signed a statement of intent regarding the introduction of Euro-Farm in Ukraine. Currently we are preparing proposals for two projects in Ukraine, and we hope that more will follow. As a result we are building up our organisation in Ukraine, and seeking staff who have knowledge of the country.”

THE FLOOR MEET STRINGENT DEMANDS FROM THE FOOD BUSINESS

FOOD ENVIRONMENTS: Authorities and consumers alike make ever increasing demands on the environment in which food is produced. Ulfcar specialises in floors which pass the toughest tests.

On the face of it, the food industry and sand from the Sahara don’t seem to have much in common. Until you consider the following recipe: Take a load of sharp edged desert sand, dye the grains with the right colours, add some special chemicals and mix with acrylate and water. Then pour it over a factory floor where foods are produced. You now have a durable floor which meets all the demands of the food industry authorities, manufacturers and employees.

     “The food industry has extremely strict regulations concerning factory buildings, not least regarding surfaces and floors. They must be durable, easy to clean and impermeable to liquids, including around pipe conduits, and from a safety point of view they must be non-slip. Industrial floors from Ulfcar meet all these demands and that explains why there are more than 30 million square metres of Ulfcar floors all over the world.”

Resistant
So says director Niels Vangsted, Ulfcar International. Over recent years the company has built a flourishing business as a supplier for the food industry and related business sectors. Ulfcar has just gained Wall Mart in Aus-tralia as one of its largest customers and will supply floors for up to 800 supermarkets.

     Some of Ulfcar’s most recent deliveries are to a number of pineapple factories in Thailand. Ulfcar’s Polycrete floors have turned out to be unequalled for this type of production since the composition of materials is resistant to the mixture of sugar and citric acid which otherwise quickly destroy all other types of floor.

Keep It Simple
One of Ulfcar’s largest growth areas is Russia. The company has supplied floors to a number of large supermarket chains. Now a major paper factory has had more than 300,000 m2 of floors applied, and several other supermarket chains and the entire Russian brewing sector have become customers.

     Besides acknowledging the quality of the floors, the choice is also due to the application system that Ulfcar has developed. The floors, which more or less are self levelling, can be applied by non-skilled workers while still ensuring consistent quality. Applying the floors is a rapid procedure and they are ready for use just a couple of hours later.

     “The system has been worked out according to the KIS model – Keep It Simple. We deliver all the components for the finished floor in customised packages. Just mix the components according to the instructions and you can’t go wrong. It also means that we are able to deliver floors all over the world with a five year guarantee.“

http://www.ulfcar.com

AGROMEK – THE LARGEST AGRICULTURAL FAIR IN NORTHERN EUROPE

AGRICULTURAL FAIR: Sophisticated mechanisation is exhibited in its full glory at Agromek 2006. With around 530 exhibitors, Agromek continues to be the largest annual agricultural fair in northern Europe.

“At Agromek 2006, pig producers and cattle farmers will again be able to see and compare the large branded range of installations and equipment for livestock housing mecha-nisation which is available on the Danish market,” says Agromek’s exhibition chief Jan Tjørnelunde.

     “Danish livestock management has very high efficiency, and great emphasis is also placed on livestock welfare and the environment. This further strengthens international interest in Agromek.” “Of the 600 exhibitors who participated at Agromek 2005, 87 are skipping Agromek 2006 and will return for Agromek 2007. A few have cancelled their participation completely, but on the other hand this enables companies which were on the waiting list to participate.” “Among the companies which will exhibit again in 2007 there are a number of Danish manufacturers of machinery and equipment for crop growing. This means that Danish produced machinery and equipment for soil treatment, sowing, slurry spreading and watering equipment will not be present at Agromek 2006 to the same extent as previously,” continues Jan Tjørnelunde. “But there will still be brands in the various groups of machinery, equipment and other products for crop growing at the exhibition. It must also be underlined that spreaders for commercial fertilizer, field sprayers, machinery for harvesting green crops as well as equipment and systems for treatment and storage of corn, potatoes and vegetables are present at the exhibition by and large in full numbers. The same applies to machinery for the garden and parks sector.” The exhibitors at Agromek are both large and small manufacturers, the latter especially having a unique opportunity to present their innovations and new products at the fair.

Harsø Maskiner A/S, a manufacturer of slurry sprayers and pumps, was among the exhibitors at Agromek 2005. The company is one of the many small, specialised companies which use Agromek as a shop window. One of the company’s specialities is pumps for thick slurry and pumps which can move slurry over long distances. In 2005, Harsø Maskiner had five products approved as new products including a European novelty, a slurry spreader which helps prevent tubes and holes from clogging.

Agromek is organised by Danish Agriculture and Danish Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers.

TRANSPORTING POWDER USING AIR PRESSURE

PROCESSING PLANTS: Tekfa specialises in dosage, weighing and transport of powders in processing plants. Now the company has invented a technique for transporting pre-mixed ingredients where the ratio of the mixture is accurately preserved, by using air pressure to blow small portions through pipes.

It’s well known in the food industry that when powders such as flour, milk powder or sugar are transported in a processing plant, their flow characteristics differ considerably. Some powders have to be moved mechanically, while others have to be blown or vibrated. And all of them have to be accurately adjusted and weighed to achieve the right result.

     The engineers at TEKFA A/S in Galten, Denmark, are among the most knowledgeable concerning powders. They know about the conditions under which flour can form lumps and create problems for flour producers or bakeries, about the precautions that need to be taken so that sugar in silos does not explode, and about how to keep powder mixtures in the same ratio during processing.

     “We have conducted a lot of research into the latter area, and have developed a special technique where the pre-mixed ingredients are transported through the processing plant in portions using air pressure,” says Erik Karlsen, technical information executive at TEKFA. “It avoids the precisely dosed pre-mixtures coming out unevenly because the various ingredients are transported differently. We have also fine-tuned the technique so that the flow can follow the other processes.” TEKFA Powder Technology has provided processing, handling and storage system solutions for dry bulk for 30 years. The company’s know-how includes size reduction, sifting, mixing, storage, flow control and transport of powdered, granulated, flaked and pellet materials. Manufacturing comprises design and production of hardware where weighing techniques and electronic control systems are among the most sophisticated in the world.

     TEKFA A/S is a typical sub-supplier for large turnkey suppliers in the food industry. The company also delivers its products directly to some of the world’s largest dairy groups and manufacturers of food ingredients. In addition to design and production of customised processing systems, TEKFA undertakes refurbishment and remodelling of existing production lines. 80% of the company’s production is exported.

http://www.tekfa.com  

WORLD-CLASS ABATTOIRS

When Castlemaine Bacon Company and KR Darling Downs, two Australian producers of pork, merged to form KR Castlemaine Foods in 2003, the new company decided to expand the abattoir in Toowoomba, Queensland with a new deboning system. From a number of manufacturers of abattoir technology, KR Castlemaine Foods chose a system from the other side of the globe. From Carnitech in Denmark.

     “Denmark is known all over the world as an agricultural and food country of the highest standard,” says Thorkild Christensen, managing director of Carnitech A/S. “Den-mark’s unique branding as a food producing country has helped to give us as an associated industry some competencies which are noticed all around the world. Being the best in a given situation naturally also means something.”

Unique in the world
In less than 25 years, Carnitech A/S has become one of the leading manufacturers of processing equipment for food companies worldwide. It mainly involves processing of meat products, fish and shellfish and associated freezing facilities. Based on a comprehensive range of standard machinery, Carnitech has specialised in design and production of complete, customized process systems.

     “Since we are also part of Iceland’s Marel Group, which comprises a number of other highly specialised companies in weighing and packaging technology, we are able to draw on an expertise which makes our complete solutions unique in the world,” says Thorkild Christensen.

Quality demands
Developments in Carnitech’s industry follow a number of different trends associated with food producing companies. In relation to processing machinery for the meat industry, Carnitech is seeing increasing numbers of its customers setting up closer to their own customers. There is a relocation of the food industry to the new tiger economies in the Far East and Eastern Europe, where the growth of a new, relatively wealthy middle class is resulting in both increased food consumption and increasing quality demands.

     “Latin America and particularly Brazil will also be very large, future markets for both choppers, slicers and mixers,” says Christensen. “Not necessarily for very advanced robots, but more labour requiring machinery, provided the wages are competitive. But regardless of whether it is advanced or more traditional machinery we are supplying, they are modern designs, easy to clean and handle.”

Leading position in the US
Since 1988, Carnitech has been established on the North American market with its own company in Seattle, USA. In a relatively short time, Carnitech has positioned itself as the leading company in primarily seafood processing equipment, both regarding complete systems on board and ashore.

     “Our success, not least in the US, is very much because of the flat Danish company culture that encourages personal initiative,” says Thorkild Christensen. It is a culture suitable for adding value to our products. Our staff independently decide how to solve problems, they are industrious, and that means we are a lot faster than our competitors in getting things done. That’s why we are today one of the sector leaders on the North American market for processing fish and shellfish.”

http://www.carnitech.com

Picture box When the new deboning system was installed at KR Castlemaine in Toowoomba, it was important that meat production on the existing system was not interrupted. The new system was installed in just six weeks –three weeks for the deboning system and three weeks for a new packing room. Daily production has now risen by 35% – with the same number of staff. This is primarily due to the continuous production flow and rationalised, automated internal transport of the various products.

DANISH MILK POWDER TO CHINA

ARLAFOODS: Europe’s largest dairy group, Arla Foods, has entered an agreement concerning local production of milk powder in retail packs for the Chinese market

Arla Foods and the Chinese dairy company China Mengniu Dairy Company have entered a collaboration regarding production of milk powder in consumer packing for the Chinese market.

     The background to the establishment of the Chinese collaboration is a growing Chinese market for milk powder as well as increased imports by the country. So the joint venture will produce locally and distribute milk powder in consumer packs, as well as handling importation and distribution of highly refined Scandinavian produced milk powder. The expectation is to establish a significant position on the Chinese market.

     The JV between Arla Foods and China Mengniu Dairy Company, in which Arla will own 49% and Mengniu 51%, will be established 1 October 2005. “Our establishment on the Chinese market is a good example of a combination of export and local production of retail packed milk powder. It is also important to replace our bulk production with several highly refined products for the benefit of our co-operative members”, says managing director Peder Tuborgh, Arla Foods.

     Milk powder in consumer packs is a strategic core business for Arla Foods. Since China is the world’s largest market for consumer packed milk powder, it is natural for Arla Foods to look at opportunities for growth in China.

Ambitious partner
China Mengniu Dairy was founded in 1999 by owner Mr. Niu Genseng, and just five years later it was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Mengniu is the leading dairy company in China and also the fastest growing. It is located in an area north of Beijing with good conditions for milk production.

     “Partnership has been the key to our business strategy when it comes to the Chinese market. We have the necessary knowhow regarding highly refined milk powder products, and our partner has an excellent distribution and sales network which gives our collaboration a good starting point”, says sales director Jais Valeur, Arla Foods Ingredients.

     Jais Valeur adds that Mengniu Dairy has an ultra modern dairy plant, and that the company has already proved that it can create results. In 2004, the company generated revenues of approx. DKK 5.5 billion. 84% of Mengniu’s current sales is based on longlife milk, milk drinks and yogurt, 11% on ice cream and 5% on milk powder.

FROM ABATTOIR TO GLOBAL FOOD COMPANY

PROCESSING: In recent years, TiCan has progressed from being a small abattoir into a global food company where processing is taking over from the traditional abattoir through the acquisition of processing companies abroad.

With an annual production of around 25 million pigs, of which about 80% is exported, Denmark is the world’s largest exporter of pork. While growth was previously achieved through production expansion and penetration of new markets, today it mainly happens through valueadded processing of the meat. Denmark’s second largest abattoir, TiCan a.m.b.a. in northern Denmark is one of the best examples.

Global
“Not many years ago TiCan was an ordinary local abattoir. Expansive, and with its own exports, but still an abattoir,” says TiCan’s finance director Niels Jørgen Villesen. “Today half of our turnover is generated from processed products and the other half from the abattoirs in the shape of bulk products. The processing aspect will continue to grow in the future. While abattoir activities grow by only 5% annually, growth in processing is 15%. Today TiCan is no longer an abattoir, but a comprehensive, global food company.”

In the Danish pig production sector, TiCan is increasingly considered the smart little brother to the giant Danish Crown, which handles 90% of all pig slaughtering in Denmark. While the country’s pig abattoirs, large and small, have steadily joined the Danish Crown fold, TiCan has conspicuously asserted its independence as a co-operative abattoir with its local connection to the pig producers in northern Jutland.

Consumers decide
“We are proud of our local roots and our independence,” says Villesen. “It gives us more room to manoeuvre, shorter decision lines, and enables us to act swiftly and flexibly to market changes. It’s necessary too, because whereas meat exports used to be agreed between countries, in today’s globalized world the consumer decides.”

TiCan was early onto the market with semi-processing of the abattoir’s meat products. The abattoir gained a sizeable market in the UK for boiled, salted and smoked products, in addition to bacon as its traditional main product. TiCan has taken over the British company Direct Table Foods Ltd. which slices and packs bacon for the British retail market. TiCan has also recently acquired Pro-Pak Foods Ltd., a company which produces sliced, retail packed boiled meat products and a wide range of cooled ready-prepared dishes for the British consumer. In addition, TiCan is represented in the UK through TiCan Chilled Ltd. which sells and distributes TiCan’s own products as well as beef and poultry to British retail stores and delicatessens. Last year TiCan, together with the Polish company Prime Food Sp. Z.o.o., acquired the processing company Nove Sp. Z.o.o. with two processing factories in Poland.

 
Butcher John Bailey from Yoxall in Staffordshire, UK, was named “Butcher of the Year” in 2001. John Bailey is a loyal purchaser of goods from TiCan Chilled.

Success in Japan
“Pork has become a bulk product produced in good quality in many countries,” says Niels Jørgen Villesen. “So it is necessary to add value through processing – the more you can do it the better it gets. We now have the slightly paradoxical situation of delivering bulk products to Nove in Poland which then exports processed goods back to Denmark. Nove is also exporting to UK as well as covering the Polish domestic market.” In addition to production, purchasing and sales in Denmark, Poland, Germany and UK, TiCan has steady sales of pork to many countries around the world, notably Japan, Australia and the US where the company’s loin cuts have found their way into a large number of steakhouses. In Japan, TiCan is doing well with special cuts supplied to customers’ exact wishes.

http://www.tican.com

DANISH MEANS STRYHN’S

NATIONAL FOOD: For lunch, Danes typically eat a piece of sliced rye bread, spread with liver paste and decorated with pickled beetroot. For many it is an abomination, but for many more it is a joy without compare. Production of the national spread has made Stryhn’s into the country’s largest supplier

Ask any Dane over 40, rich or poor, man or woman, short or tall, about their schooldays, and the conversation will continue endlessly. About the terrible German teacher, the burden of homework and the infinite boredom of physics lessons. And then the ultimate memory – the smell which spread through the classroom when the lunchtime came and 25 packed lunches were opened. It was the moment of liver paste on sliced rye bread, their finest hour. The smell of liver paste, mixed with the colour from a slice of pickled beetroot, and the rattling of greaseproof paper follows most Danes throughout their life.

     Danish liver paste is the national lunchtime food, cut in slices and laid on rye bread, decorated with pickled cucumber or beetroot. And when it needs to be fine, with roasted mushrooms, gelatin and a couple of pieces of bacon.

National peculiarity
Patés in countless variations and with almost every kind of ingredient exist all over the world. There are several reasons why liver paste has achieved such a colossal popularity in Denmark: its taste, convenience, inexpensiveness and its almost chauvinistic ability to express national peculiarity. Danish liver paste is quite simply the putty which holds traditional Danish food together.

     “The market for liver paste in Denmark is extraordinarily stable,” says director Steen Jespersen of Stryhn’s A/S, Denmark’s largest liver paste producer. Stryhn’s has around 40% of the total sales of the 20,000 tons of liver paste produced annually. “The 20,000 tons covers industrially made liver paste. But there is hardly a Danish home cook who does not have their own recipe for special occasions.”

You take . . . Ingredients for a traditional, Danish liver paste: 500 g pig liver · 300 g lard · 2 small onions · 3 anchovies · 50 g butter 1 dl flour · 3 1/2 dl stock and/or milk · 3 eggs · 4 tsp. salt · 1/2 tsp. pepper Method Finely chop the liver, lard, onions and anchovies in a food processor. Melt the butter in a pan, stir in the flour, and add the stock. Allow the mixture to cool. Add the eggs singly while beating the mixture thoroughly. Add spices to taste. Pour the mixture into a deep, greased baking tin. Place in a water bath and steam in an oven for about 1 hour at 180 degrees Celsius. When cool, serve on bread and decorate with bacon, pickled cucumber or beetroot. A special variant of the famous Danish open sandwich is called the “Vet’s Midnight Snack” It consists of a buttered piece of rye bread topped with a thick slice of liver paste. The paste is decorated with raw onion slices and gelatin, on which slices of boiled, salted veal are placed. Bon appetit!

Low fat
The reason why liver paste is so widespread in Denmark is primarily due to the huge volume of byproducts from Denmark’s massive pig production. The basic ingredients of the paste are about 1/3 pig or calf liver, 1/3 lard and 1/3 stock, milk, onion, flour and spices. But every producer and home cook have their own variations. Stryhn’s uses only fresh Danish ingredients. Danish agricultural products are subject to the world’s strictest quality control, which can be seen from the almost total absence of for example Salmonella and Listeria.

     “We do continuous product development so that we always suit the tastes of the time,” says Steen Jespersen. “Tastes are changing and therefore also liver paste. We have variations both in consistency and taste, and not least we see a trend towards lowfat liver pastes. We would also very much like to make organic liver paste, but at present the price of such a product would be simply too high. For Danes, liver paste is one of holiest daily commodities which has always been regarded as one of the cheapest and healthiest spreads. To challenge that view would be commercial suicide.”

http://www.stryhns.dk  

ALMONDS AND SUGAR THE WORLD’S MOST ELEGANT SWEET

MARZIPAN: The world’s largest producer of marzipan, Odense Marcipan, located in Hans Christian Andersen’s native town, produces more than 13,500 tons of this divine delicacy every year.

Danes have a sweet tooth, and their ability to produce confectionery to match has made Danish sweets such as wine gums, liquorice, chocolate and chewing gum into big export successes. Blanched almonds, mixed with sugar and kneaded into the loveliest marzipan, to such an extent that the country has the world’s largest individual producer of this costly and elegant sugary delicacy, Odense Marcipan. Together with the rest of Denmark’s marzipan production, which mainly takes place at the confectionery giant Toms Group, it makes Denmark the second biggest marzipan producer.

Tradition
“Marzipan is a divine product which forms part of a large number of different products – from sweets to cakes and a lot of fine desserts,” says director Niels Søgaard of Odense Marcipan. Marzipan particularly hits the taste buds of consumers in the Northern hemisphere, despite the fact that from a historical point of view, marzipan is not a Danish tradition. There is still debate as to whether the sweetened raw almond mix was invented in Italy or Germany.

We can only say that we make the finest quality product, and so have become one of the world’s largest producers. We also believe that it pays to produce quality.” Odense Marcipan produces about 13,500 tons of marzipan annually. The main ingredient is almonds from California and Spain, the latter providing the necessary bitter almonds which help to create the unmistakable taste and aroma.

170 variants
“Apricot kernels have the same ability although we consider it to be cheating slightly,” says Niels Søgaard. “The genuine, raw almond mix must be made from almonds and sugar. That is our quality parameter. But tastes do differ. In Denmark we sell more or less nothing else than the genuine raw mix where the almonds are ground fairly coarsely. In Sweden they prefer the marzipan to be somewhat sweeter, and in Japan, which is a very interesting market to us, they prefer the genuine mix, but ground somewhat finer.” Marzipan has many different forms. Odense Marcipan produces 170 different variants, all made to customers’ specific wishes.

Christmas ritual
“Since 40% of our production goes to the food industry for further processing, it matters what kind of marzipan we supply. In some cases it needs to be rolled out, in others it is formed, and again in others it is a filling or decoration. Each individual variant must have its own characteristics, quality or colour. We are able to supply that. But all of it is based on sugar and almonds. On that point we don’t compromise.” In addition to producing marzipan, the company manufactures soft nougat made from ground hazelnuts, sugar and cocoa butter. The two products are among the favourites when homemade confectionery is made in the months leading up to Christmas. They form an almost divine alliance in your mouth – and a divine greasiness on children’s fingers. But that is all part of the Danish Christmas ritual.

Personal wedding cakes Marzipan is the main ingredient of the centrepiece at Danish feasts – the almond cake. It consists of a number of baked marzipan rings in different sizes which are placed one on top of the other to create a tower. The largest ring is placed at the bottom, with progressively smaller rings placed on top. The whole ensemble is glued together with chocolate or sugar and traditionally decorated with sugar icing and small paper Danish flags. The almond cake is a fixed requirement for all Danes on New Year’s Eve, and is eaten at midnight and washed down with champagne. There are few people in the world who know more about the various application opportunities of marzipan than Peter Kofod, Odense Marcipan’s chief confectioner. His job is to carry out marzipan product development especially for the bakery and confectionery sector. Among the company’s new initiatives is the development of a manual for making a personal wedding cake. The manual gives bakers and confectioners the opportunity to create exactly the wedding cake which the happy couple wants. In size, shape and colour.

BUILDING MONUMENTS OF ICE CREAM

ICE CREAM: When Danes have celebration dinners, the dessert is often an ice cream layer cake – a monumental structure of ice cream, whipped cream, fruit, chocolate and marzipan. And it’s not only a favourite with Danes. The last Danish owned ice cream factory, Polar Is, has also turned it into an export success

50 years ago, there wasn’t a selfrespecting co-operative dairy that didn’t make its own ice cream. It was sold from stalls on country roads, or customers phoned the dairy when family parties were to be held and had the most amazing sculpted ice cream layer cakes brought to their door. At that time there were around 150 ice cream producers.

     Those days are now gone. Industrialisation has replaced old practices, where the dairy operator made the ice cream more or less by hand, while a handful of staff packed the product in glittering gold paper or colourful packs. After World War II, new machines and freezing techniques were introduced, and one ice cream factory after another was closed as small dairies merged and production was concentrated at giant concerns.

Good old days
Today there is just one Danish owned ice cream factory left. Polar Is, in Thisted in northern Denmark, keeps the flag flying by making ice cream according to the old traditions so that it tastes like it did in the good old days, while staying thoroughly up to date with advanced technology, Polar Is [Is means Ice in Danish] is not only a local ice cream producer in a corner of Denmark, but a nationwide supplier of ice cream for everyday life and celebrations.

     “The Danish tradition for using natural and healthy ingredients in the ice cream has meant that consumers on neighbouring markets are increasingly developing a taste for our specialities,” says Jens Jørgen Sørensen. “The biggest sellers are our large and attractive ice cream layer cakes, followed by our frozen cream soufflés, which in portion sizes have gained considerable market share in the restaurant and catering sector. They can serve them as a fast yet delicious dessert, adding their own creativity with decoration and personal touches.”

BACK TO BASICS There is plenty of nostalgia in ice cream. One of the first awarenesscreating taste experiences you have as a child is ice cream, and the sense of a good ice cream follows you throughout life. The industrialisation of ice cream production, which for a large number of discount brands builds on different forms of butter fat or vegetable fat, blended with emulsifiers and stabilizers, and the taste adjusted with artificial flavourings, and then standardised through mass production, has created a backlash among quality conscious consumers. In Denmark there is a back to basics trend, which benefits a number of producers of the real article.      “Polar Is was the first ice cream factory which started making organic ice cream on a large scale,” says director Jens Jørgen Sørensen of Polar Is in Thisted. “We use only state controlled organic products regarding fruits, chocolate, sugar, eggs and cream. It really is ice cream that tastes like it did in the good old days.” Three other smaller ice cream producers in Denmark have achieved great success marketing ice creams which hit the nostalgic sweet spot in consumers. Vebbestrup Mejeri in Jutland makes both organic and nonorganic ice cream in the old fashioned way with pure cream and no artificial flavourings or colourings. When Vebbestrup Mejeri makes banana ice cream, they use bananas and not banana flavour. And the vanilla comes from a vanilla pod, not from a synthetic chemical supplier. Aabybro Mejeri in northern Jutland collaborates with a number of wellknown chefs to develop their Ryå Ice Cream. The dairy produces ice cream based on pure cream from local farmers. It has won a number of quality awards and is served on the Singapore Airlines flight between Copenhagen and Singapore. The dairy has also gained success with sa special ice cream called “Energy Dense”, which as the name suggests is packed with calories. It has been specially developed for the sick and old with poor Hansens Flødeis in Jægerspris, 50 km north of Copenhagen, also makes ice cream from genuine natural ingredients. The owner Hans Jørgen Eibye is a grandchild of the founder of one of Denmark’s large ice cream factories, Frederiksborg Is, which was acquired some years ago by Nestlé. Today Hans Jørgen Eibye makes ice cream using his grandfather’s original recipes. Hansens Flødeis has found its way into the freezer cabinets of several supermarket chains.

Private labels
Polar Is has recently implemented a major expansion of its production capacity to handle increasing demand for own label ice cream. The ice cream is tailored to the exact wishes of customers by virtue of the

factory’s flexibility and ultramodern production machinery.

     Despite tough competition in ice cream production, largely from cheap ice creams made in huge batches from standard products, Polar Is is strengthening its position. The company has over 20% market share in Denmark, and is increasing both volume and turnover by 10% year on year. Today the factory produces about 50 million ice lollies and ice cream layer cakes annually.

http://www.polar-is.dk  

QUALITY AND GASTRONOMY FROM THE MARSHLANDS

SOUTHERN JUTLAND SAUSAGES: Sausages from the region of Jutland which borders Germany, have always been something special. For more than a century Højer Pølser has refined sausage making into a fine art

When the brothers Gerd and Jan Müller first participated in a trade competition for making liver sausages in Mannheim, Germany in 1995, they created sensation in the delicatessen sector. Against competition from 2,500 specialists around the world, they swept the board at the award ceremony, winning in all disciplines and making Højer Pølser a known and respected name everywhere quality sausages are appreciated.

     “The Mannheim medals are probably those we are most proud of,” say the Müller brothers. Højer Pølser has won more than 200 medals over the 110 years in which four generations have run the company. The most recent award is the Danish Gastronomic Academy’s honorary diploma for valuable gastronomic efforts in the production of southern Jutland ham and sausage specialities.

Craftsmanship and quality
Højer Pølser takes its name from the town of Højer close to the German border. Højer lies in marshland close to the North Sea, where its green pastures have been used for centuries to graze cattle and sheep, and have made the resulting beef and lamb a special gastronomic experience. The town itself is a delightful mixture of old houses and twisting streets, which although located below sea level have the protection of substantial physical defences against the North Sea.

     “A good sausage needs two things: True craftsmanship and quality ingredients,” says Jan Müller. “We have learned the craft from our father, who learned it from his father, who again learned it from his father. The vast majority of the recipes have been passed down over four generations. Many of our specialities are old recipes from southern Jutland, which always has been known for good food.”

Exquisite taste
“We also use ingredients of exquisite quality,” says Jan Müller. “We forbid anything tainted by colour or fillers. A sausage from Højer is made only from meat, fat and spices. They are non-allergenic too, since there is no flour, eggs or milk products in them. We know every single supplier and choose the ingredients from local farms ourselves so we know what goes into our sausages. The maturation of the sausages is also important. We mature the sausages in stone ovens and smoke them over beech wood which confers the most exquisite taste.”

     Sausage making is a truly ancient craft. The Ancient Greeks were very fond of sausages, and during the Roman Empire sausages developed into much sought after specialities. The sausages we know today mainly originate from Germany, Hungary and Italy.

     “In Denmark it was especially smoked and salted sausages which became popular as they kept well at a time when people didn’t have fridges. And because its proximity to Germany, southern Jutland is where sausage making gained ground. Gradually southern Jutland sausages got their own identity and taste, and today they are a unique product. Provided that the ingredients are genuine, that is.”

Old recipe
Højer Pølser is a true family enterprise where everyone lends a helping hand – assisted by the father Andreas Müller, who helps ensure that the old traditions are maintained. At the same time, new initiatives have taken place – Gerd and Jan Müller have developed a range of French and Italian sausages with garlic and cognac.

     “One of our greatest successes in recent years is our potato salami based on a recipe from our grandmother, who inherited it from her grandmother. We have replaced the fat with potatoes which helps emphasise the taste of pork and beef. We have also had great success with our cabbage sausages which we make from coarsely chopped ham which is boiled and smoked.” Many sausages have been criticised over time, largely because they are often able to hide more than they reveal. There are many anecdotes of people who have instantly stopped eating sausages, having seen what went into them. By contrast, Gerd and Jan Müller’s recipe for success is based on achieving the opposite reaction. They have a rapidly growing clientele who often visit the shop in Højer as well as the sausage making facility itself. People happily travel from afar – or order their sausages via the internet. Højer Pølser is also gaining shelf space in increasing numbers of supermarkets in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

     “Quality consciousness is clearly increasing among consumers,” says Jan Müller. “We have almost doubled our revenues in just a year even though our sausages, on account of their quality, are somewhat more expensive.” “But it’s also a fact that there is far more substance in a Højer sausage than less expensive alternatives,” adds Gerd Müller “You have to eat three cheap sausages to fill your stomach. Just one sausage from Højer does the same job.”

http://www.hojer-polser.dk

HUNTING HALIBUT THE TRADITIONAL WAY

LUXURY FISH: Halibut from the world’s purest waters around the Ilulissat glacier, is served up in Western Europe’s most fashionable restaurants 72 hours after Greenland’s fishermen have made the catch

It is six in the morning, and a fisherman sets off over the ice covered fiord with his sledge pulled by 12 huskies. It is dark because it is so far north – by the foot of the world’s largest glacier around Ilulissat in northern Greenland – the sun does not rise over the horizon for three months of the year. It is extremely cold, minus 32 degrees Celsius, and the fisherman is dressed accordingly. Boots made of several layers of sealskin keep his feet dry and warm, and his trouser and sweaters are made from wool and sealskin. These are the clothes Greenland’s fisherman have worn for centuries, made and adjusted to the tough and inhospitable climate of the world’s largest island, where less than 55,000 inhabitants live.

A deep water wonder
A couple of kilometres out across the ice, the fisherman reaches his workplace. For weeks in advance he has been knocking a hole in the metre thick ice. Now he breaks through the newly formed layer of ice in the hole, and carefully lowers his line down into the ice cold water. Down in the depths below him are halibut, one of the world’s gastronomic wonders.

     The fish take the bait and there are lots of them, varying in size from 2 to 10 kilos, and often a lot larger. They live in the fiord that functions as an outlet for the glacier which every day produces a volume of ice corresponding to New York’s annual water consumption. It is clean water originating from snow that fell 30,000 years ago, which has been compressed into ice. This enormous ice mass produces millions of tons of water and biomass, and creates the foundation for the halibut’s living conditions.

Freshly caught
Later in the day the catch is tallied. The 400 kilos of fresh halibut are packed on the dog sledge, and then the journey back to Ilulissat begins. At the town’s new fishing factory, the day’s catch is skinned and filleted within two hours, packed in ice, and flown to Europe’s top restaurants.

     72 hours after the fishing line descended into the ice hole, this fine fish is being served for discerning restaurant goers in Paris, Hamburg, Madrid and Rome.

INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION TO ROYAL GREEN-LAND COOKBOOK The ’Shrimps & Greenland halibuts’ cookbook from Royal Greenland, with foreword by His Royal Highness Prince Henrik, top scorer at cookbook ’Oscar’ awards.       More than 320 books from 29 countries participated in the finals where the Royal Greenland cookbook came in second in the category “Best Fish Cookbooks”. The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards received a total of 5,000 books from 67 countries. The books were divided into 32 categories.       On ’Shrimps and Greenland halibuts’ the jury said: “A unique book, one of the worlds two best fish cookbooks this year”. Marketing Manager Lisbeth Laursen from Royal Greenland is pleased with the recognition and says: “In my opinion a good book is characterized by the ’writer’s’ personality, and it is then the style of the book which makes the difference and defines a winner.” She adds: “When planning the book we managed – besides the many recipes – to communicate the unique soul of Greenland, and thus the unique products on which the shrimp and Greenland halibut recipes are based – recipes which have been developed by young cooks from the number one gourmet country, France. This combination of genuine, clean raw materials from the sea around Greenland and international, innovative thinking by the young, French cooks has made the book unique and taken it to the top of the ’Oscar’ awards.” The book has also been published in French (“Crevettes & Flétan”) in 30,000 copies and distributed to restaurants etc. In Denmark the book has become a sales success as part of the big Royal Greenland campaigns in 2004. Lisbeth Laursen promises new and remarkable campaigns in 2005 –and the success of the book has indeed encouraged Royal Greenland to work even more with recipe books as according to Lisbeth Laursen such a process is an important part of the creative process of developing new, innovative products and applications.

UNIQUE SHRIMPS ROYAL GREENLAND: Cutter Shrimps are caught by small fishing cutters which bring them ashore the same day Royal Greenland is now launching Cutter Shrimps, which are of extra fine quality because of unique growth conditions and a special catching method. A new, free cookery book is being published concurrently to encourage a healthy interest in the fruits of the sea. – We want to show that Cutter Shrimps are not just another name, but shrimps which have been lifted from the depths by cutters close to land and not by large industrial trawlers which are out at sea for several weeks, says Royal Greenland’s head of marketing Lisbeth Laursen. Just like good wine, a lot of conditions affect the quality of the shrimp: Unique growth conditions, catching method and gentle handling are of the greatest importance. Royal Greenland’s shrimps are frozen only once from catch to serving, which is a crucial part of the quality experience.

THE QUEEN OF THE SEAS Like salmon, herring and mackerel, halibut has a very high content of unsaturated omega-3 fatty acids. It was Danish researchers who discovered the unique prophylactic effect of these substances on coronary thrombosis. This disease is very rare among Greenlanders, and the reason why was found in their diet, which consists mainly of fish and seal meat.      Linecaught Greenland halibut is larger and of far better eating quality than others. This is due to the fish’s slow growth in the ice cold, crystal clear waters of northern Greenland. It gives firm white flesh – without a single bone.      Until very recently Royal Greenland and PolarFish were the only exporters of frozen Greenland halibut. Now the newly established Greenland Glacier Seafood A/S has also started exporting the fish, which is flown fresh to Europe by Air Greenland.

 

UNIQUE ENVIRONMENT Ilulissat fiord is a fascinating and dramatic natural environment, unequalled in the world. This is where the majestic icebergs are produced, which move south along Greenland’s west coast before ending their days in the Atlantic Sea. The glacier itself consists of enormous ice masses which are pushed out from the Greenland ice sheet at a rate of several metres per day. Snow falls on the ice sheet all year round. The 3 kilometre thick ice cap has been compressed into a dense mass over millennia, and this pressure forces the ice out into the fiord. The ice fiord complex and the glacier itself have been placed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. The adjacent town of Ilulissat, with its 5,000 inhabitants, is the largest habitation in northern Greenland. The town is also a centre for Greenland’s fledgling tourism industry. http://www.ilulissat.gl

FLOWN FROM SEA TO TABLE

ICE FIORD HALIBUT: Freshly caught halibut is now being flown from Greenland to western Europe for the first time ever. The small aircraft capacity makes the fish a rare luxury item

Greenland Glacier Seafood A/S is a small privately owned company in Ilulissat which for the first time in Greenland’s history now sells freshly caught fish products to the north European luxury market. Initially the fish is freshly caught halibut from the ice fiord, packed in ice and flown directly from the factory via Greenland’s international airport in Sondre Stromfjord to the markets in Europe.

     “It is simply the best quality in the world,” says director Steen Bangsgaard of Greenland Glacier Seafood. “The halibut has so far been sold as frozen fish, but with the establishment of a cargo agreement with Air Greenland, the freshly caught fish can now be sold three days after the catch without being frozen. Luxury restaurants in northern Europe can serve this amazing fish without comprising quality requirements.” Greenland Glacier Seafood is owned by 42 shareholders from the town of Ilulissat. The fish is caught by some 250 fishermen. During the summer when the sea is free of ice, the fish is caught from a dinghy, while in winter the fish is caught through holes in the ice.

     Greenland Ice Fiord halibut has white and firm flesh, and the high level of fish oil makes it one of the healthiest fish to eat. The waters from which the fish come are also known to be the world’s purest.

     “It is a luxury in line with oysters and caviar,” says Bangsgaard. “That’s because the amount of Ice Fiord halibut is limited to 9 tons a week. The aircraft from Air Greenland are unable to handle more. Our tiny airport in Ilulissat has only one 800 metre runway, and is used by the relatively small Dash-7 aircraft. Until the runway is lengthened for handling larger aircraft, our freshly caught halibut will continue to be a rare delicacy.”

http://www.ggs.gl

DANISH ECONOMY DOING JUST FINE

The Danish economy is in excellent condition, with high growth, low unemployment and solid current account and budget surpluses. If Danish policymakers can seize the opportunity, a historically high number of Danes might be able to find employment.

     After the slow growth period of 2001-2003, the Danish economy has been growing at a healthy rate since the summer of 2003, driven inter alia by fiscal expansion. The economy grew 2.1% in 2004, and the latest economic data suggest it might expand nearly 3% this year. Consumer spending has been the main growth driver but, lately, exports have also done well, surging more than 8% in the first half of 2005. Unemployment has fallen nicely against the backdrop of high economic growth and is rapidly nearing a level where it cannot slide much further without prompting a risk of labour shortages in the business sector.

     The economic recovery has now lasted so long and gained such momentum that it is bound to change gear. We should no longer expect the same high growth rates as we have seen so far, but this is nothing to lament. Denmark’s alreadytight labour market does not leave room for much in the way of strong growth.

     Tightness in the labour market and buoyant growth are the only real threats to the Danish economy at the moment. Is the economy in danger of overheating where the demand for labour pushes wages so high that they hurt competitiveness and exports? And could this force the government to tighten up fiscal policy in order to head off current account pressure, as happened last time in 1998?

     It’s difficult to unequivocally say when the Danish economy will begin to experience capacity restraints – and even more uncertain is how. When the economy has overheated in the past, the symptom has always been a serious deterioration in the current account. In both 1986 and 1998, the current account weakened significantly owing to high domestic growth and poorer competitiveness.

     The present economic upswing, though, has not really been reflected in the current account. The current account surplus looks likely to amount to more than 2% of GDP both last year and this year – and, if anything, the surplus is heading upwards. Because of the handsome current account surplus, Denmark’s foreign debt is likely to be replaced by wealth creation relative to foreign countries.

     Denmark’s position as a net exporter of oil plays an important role in the surplus – naturally, the surplus is sharply boosted during periods of high oil prices. A second – and perhaps even more important –factor is that the past 20 years of economic reform have reduced the imbalances in the Danish economy. Because of this, the current account no longer comes under the same pressure as earlier when the economy is surging ahead.

     So any capacity problems will most likely show themselves elsewhere. Shortages of qualified labour will come to play a more important role than previously, and these shortages will probably generate higher wage pressures. But pressures will build only slowly, so the primary effect, we believe, will be that businesses will have to forego orders more or less voluntarily, since they will simply not be able to fulfil them. Also, pressure to relocate jobs to other countries may increase.

     The robust condition of the Danish economy means an overheating will not necessarily have such dramatic consequences as seen in the past – but even without them, there is good reason to avoid an overheating. Continued expansion in its economy has given Denmark a unique chance to integrate more marginalised sections of the community into the labour market. This would require reform of the labour market and tax policies but if Denmark succeeds, it could lay the foundation for several more years of strong economic data.

A PRINCE IS BORN
On Saturday 15 October, Denmark’s Crown Princess Mary Elisabeth gave birth to a son who will be the second in line to the Danish throne. The newborn is the first child of Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary. The royal couple married in Copenhagen in 2004.

WORLD’S 4TH MOST COMPETITIVE ECONOMY
Denmark has moved up one position to rank 4th of 117 economies surveyed in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2005-2006 In a study which assessed 117 economies worldwide, Denmark moved up to 4th spot to rank among the world’s elite.

     Finland takes pole position again this year, with the US, Sweden and Denmark completing the leading quartet. Not only all the Scandinavian countries, but the entire Nordic Region (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland) are among the top 10.

     Augusto Lopez-Claros, chief economist and director of the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Programme comments on the high ranking of the Nordic countries: “In many ways they rank among the most competitive economies in the world, with world class institutions and some of the highest levels of per capita income in the world”. The rankings are drawn from a combination of hard data, publicly available for each of the economies studied, and the results of the Executive Opinion Survey, a comprehensive assessment conducted by the World Economic Forum, together with its network of partner institutes.

PLENTY OF OIL AND GAS
Figures from the Danish Energy Agency show there is a lot more oil beneath Danish territory than previously thought. So far the expectation has been that Denmark would be self-sufficient in oil until 2014. The new calculations show that Denmark will be self-sufficient in both oil and natural gas until 2025. In its most recent forecast, The Danish Energy Agency estimates that total oil production in the next 20 years will be 54% more than previously calculated. The forecast takes into consideration the discovery of more oil and gas fields in the North Sea and constant development of new technology for oil and gas extraction.

DANISH BUDGET SURPLUS HIGHEST IN THE EU
In 2004, Denmark registered the highest surplus on the national budget of all 25 countries in the EU at 2.3% of GNP. Besides Denmark, only four other countries had surplus on the national budget: Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Ireland. 10 countries failed to comply with EU requirements that the national budget deficit must not exceed 3% of the country’s GNP. Germany, Italy, France and Greece are among the ten countries. In population terms, these four countries alone make up 55% of the entire Eurozone.

CRUISE LINER RECORD
A record number of cruise liners called into Copenhagen in the summer holiday season 2005. With 284 calls, the Port of Copenhagen is the largest port for cruise liners in northern Europe. The large number is likely to result in construction of a new cruise liner quay in a few years. From 1998 to 2005 the number of passengers has doubled to about 350,000. Copenhagen’s passenger volume as a turnaround port – where passengers start and end their cruise – has increased by 72%.

NEW TYPES OF MILK ON THE WAY

What cows eat affects the taste of the milk. Maize confers a sweet and creamy taste, while clover gives the milk a slight taste of hazelnuts.

There is more to milk than milk. Although the taste is mild, there are large taste and aroma differences depending on what the cow eats. That is one of the reasons why milk changes its taste when cows go out to pasture. Now the Royal Danish Veterinary and Agricultural University (KVL) and the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences have examined how different types of feed affect the taste of the milk, so the knowledge can be exploited to develop new types of milk.

Identifying the taste of milk types
In Denmark three litres of milk cost about EUR 1.40. But perhaps people would pay more for milk if they got something extra like a special taste or nutritional combination. And this they can get, if they buy milk from cows which have been given a special feed.

“For instance, maizebased feed gives the milk a sweet and creamy taste, clover a slightly hazelnut taste, while grassbased feed confers a more sweet, boiled taste”, says Lise Wolf Frandsen from the Sensory Analysis Group at KVL. She has identified the exact taste of milk from cows given maize, hay, grass or clover based feed. There was a big difference in the number of negative taste nuances the milk samples developed after four days in the fridge. Milk from cows given clover or grass based feed started to taste slightly sour and cardboardlike, while maize based milk still was sweet and creamy.

Feelings for milk
Taste differences between milk types are however very small, and one can ask whether they have any importance for the average consumer. Lise Wolf Frandsen thinks they have. She has shown that ordinary consumers can taste the difference in milk from cows which have been given hay, grass, maize or clover based feed.

Different types of milk
So new feeding strategies can change the taste of milk so much that ordinary consumers can taste it. And if they do not like the new taste there is a danger that they will drink less milk which otherwise is a good and inexpensive calcium source for many Danes.

     “It is important for farmers to think about how the milk tastes when choosing the feeding strategy, says Jacob Holm Nielsen. “It is obvious to exploit the importance of feed in determining the taste of milk, to develop new and more refined milk products which can for example be made to taste slightly of hazelnuts.”