Danish Bacon

The co-operative system has low costs because of the scale (25 million pigs per year) and the elimination of the need for markets.

Denmark now concentrates on pig production and has moved bacon curing and packing to other countries.

A number of smaller slaughterhouses operate outside this system for domestic supply, but none have a licence to export.

Prices are set on a weekly basis by a committee of Danske Slagterier, thus making a large saving on transportation costs as there is less need to move animals around.

[2] In the 19th century, Denmark's main food export was grain to the UK, but it was outcompeted by the United States and Russia and began to switch to pigs and butter from dairy herds.

[6] Denmark exported bacon to the United Kingdom from at least 1847, when flitches of bacon were specially prepared for the English market, but had no large-scale production until 1864, when the Second Schleswig War made export of live pigs to Hamburg, where up to then they had been slaughtered and cured, impossible and Denmark was forced to do this locally.

The Danish imports were welcomed in the UK; the growth in population following the Industrial Revolution meant that the country was no longer self-sufficient in food, but there was an increasing demand from a more affluent working class.

This made Denmark the main supplier to the UK, replacing the U.S. which previously held that position.

The first of these was I. D. Koopmann of Hamburg, who bought and opened new bacon factories in order to get around the German ban on live pigs.

The CWS had depots in Denmark from 1881, taking advantage of the refusal of London dealers to buy from the co-operatives.

Bacon was also inspected at Esbjerg and stamped to indicate disease free status and the number of the slaughterhouse.

In World War Two Danish ships supplying Britain had their cargo confiscated by the Germans or were even sunk.

[21] There has been a growing movement by the co-operatives to centralise the slaughterhouse and bacon processing plants into ever larger establishments.

This almost immediately resulted in imports climbing to 75% and the price falling to one-third of Danish-produced bacon.

[25] The UK pig system was introduced following a call in the late 1990s by William Hague, the leader of the British Conservative Party (at the time in opposition) to ban Danish bacon.

Danish farmers were paid a supplement to cover the additional cost of rearing UK pigs.

[26] Sow stalls were again criticised by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver in 2009 and the response from the Danish Bacon industry made it clear that they were still in use on some farms, but were all outphased before the EU deadline of 2013.

A 1999 advertisement caused a large number of complaints to be received by the Independent Television Commission.

The advert made reference to the 1973 horror movie The Exorcist, a film which itself had been banned on video until that year.

It was criticised as tasteless, and since it ran in the daytime as well, many parents complained, leading the commission to prohibit the ad from being shown before 9pm.