TheCopenhagenPost
January 17th, 2016

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The EU and US have lifted sanctions on Iran after it was certified on Saturday that it has met its commitments under a UN Security Council nuclear agreement made last summer, DR Nyheder reports.

The door is open
The industrial advocate organisation Dansk Industri (DI) has responded positively to the news that the door is now open to the country’s market and its 80 million consumers.

“It is very positive, since Iran has always been an incredibly exciting market with good possibilities for Danish business,” Peter Thagesen, a vice president at DI, said.

“Danish dairy products are in high demand among Iranian consumers, so we can expect an increase in export. In the field of green technology Denmark has shown for many years that we are able to deliver solutions that make it possible to use energy much more effectively. That is something Iran is seeking because they utilise their own energy very badly.”

Comparable to Turkey
Danish exports to Iran is currently around one billion kroner per year and Thagesen envisages this multiplying, comparing the Iranian market with Turkey.

“If we can turn things around and increase Danish exports so that they double in the next five years it will be extremely positive,” he said.

“Denmark exports for about 8 billion kroner to Turkey, which is comparable with Iran in terms of population. That tells something about how much potential there is in the long run.”

Challenges ahead
But Thagesen warns that it will not be plain sailing and that succeeding in the Iranian market involves overcoming significant challenges.

“For the past 15 years Iran has been the hardest market anywhere to do business in. It is a market with a lot of corruption and where the political, the economic and the religious are mixed together in another way than how we are used to in western markets.”