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Consumers want to buy Danish again, analysis shows

Stephen Gadd
November 6th, 2017


This article is more than 7 years old.

In Denmark, as in many other places, the trend towards trading globally is slowing down compared to buying locally

Despite the tendency to support local companies, exports from Denmark are still booming (photo: Pixabay/Pexels)

Companies worldwide are electing to produce goods closer to home and to their customers – and this tendency is also apparent in Denmark.

A new analysis from the confederation of Danish industry, Dansk Industri (DI), reveals that Danes don’t have the same fondness for foreign goods as they did previously when there were periods of general economic growth.

Buying local
“From the middle of the ’90s up until 2008 we became accustomed to seeing that whenever production increased in Denmark, then imports increased by almost three times as much,” said the deputy head of Dansk Industri, Kent Damsgaard.

READ ALSO: Business News in Brief: Danes spending record amounts on net trading

“For the last couple of years, it has been different. Both companies and consumers have increased their purchase of goods and services from abroad to a far lesser degree than previously.”

Exports still hot
On the other hand, the slowing down of global trade doesn’t mean that Danish companies are having less success on the export market – far from it, in fact.

“Around 775,000 Danish jobs are connected to the export market. That shows that Danish companies are doing very well in competition with international firms,” added Damsgaard.

“However, if we want to keep up this momentum, it is vital that here in Denmark we are constantly striving towards creating the best framework for doing business.”


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”