Beers, legotoys and Windmills
Beers, beers, beers...
Maybe you already know Danish beer? The biggest danish brewery produce two worldwide known labels : Carlsberg and Tuborg.
But there are other Breweries situated around in Denmark. Most of them smaller, local or otherwise higly specialised ones.
The current trend seems to be to focus more on the exotic and unknown
To satisfy the trend the (almost) beer monopoly ind Denmark has made a little brewery with smallscale production and are importing foreign labels to the danish market.
Another danish brewery is the Harboe brewery. It makes a fine pilsner called Premium.
All Danes have a opinion about beer and have formed societies to honor the drink. One beer society has even published its recipe for caffeinated beer under an open-source license.
Lego
But the Danes are producing other goods than beer.
Legotoys is an examble. Lego is propably known all over the world for its toys and surely all Danes have once in their childhood played with the products from the company. And probably they have also been visiting the Legoland Park in Billund, Denmark one or several times, children, parents and grandparents together.
Windmills: Energy from the wind
A relatively new industry in Denmark is the industry producing windturbines, the windpower industry. The windturbines are used for producing electricity from the wind. You'll find Danish manufactured windturbines all over the world. In India, U.S.A., Germany etc. and of course in Denmark where today they are supplying more than 20 percent of the electricy consumed.
In the seventies a small group of idealists in a school in Denmark was building the then biggest windturbine in the world. In general they were laughed at, and at the same time the official authorities in Denmark planned to build Nuclear Power Plants in the country. The windturbine was actually build, the idea about producing electricity out of the wind became popular, and out of the idea, a whole industry emerged.
The Tvind windturbine is still producing electricity, today, more than 20 years after it was build.
But the nuclear power plants were never build. Maybe thats the reason why the people from Tvind since then has been a bit unpopular by the government, media and politicians.
Economy
Economy overview: This thoroughly modern market economy features high-tech agriculture, up-to-date small-scale and corporate industry, extensive government welfare measures, comfortable living standards, a stable currency, and high dependence on foreign trade. Denmark is a net exporter of food and energy and enjoys a comfortable balance of payments surplus. Government objectives include streamlining the bureaucracy and further privatization of state assets. The government has been successful in meeting, and even exceeding, the economic convergence criteria for participating in the third phase (a common European currency) of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), but Denmark has decided not to join the 12 other EU members in the euro; even so, the Danish Krone remains pegged to the euro. Given the sluggish state of the European economy, growth in 2003 was a mere 1.1%.
GDP: purchasing power parity - $155.3 billion (2002 est.)
GDP real growth rate: 1.6% (2002 est.)
GDP per capita: purchasing power parity - $28,900 (2002 est.)
GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 3%, industry: 26%, services: 71% (2002 est.)
Household
income or consumption by percentage share: lowest
10%: 2%,
highest 10%: 24% (2000 est.)
Labour force: 2.856 million (2000 est.)
Labor force - by occupation: services 79%, industry 17%, agriculture 4% (2002 est.)
Unemployment rate: 5.1% (2002)
Budget: revenues: $52.9 billion, expenditures: $51.3 billion, including capital expenditures of $500 million (2001 est.)
Industries: food processing, machinery and equipment, textiles and clothing, chemical products, electronics, construction, furniture and other wood products, shipbuilding, windmills
Electricity production: 35.47 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity
production by source: fossil
fuel: 82.7%, hydro: 0.1%, other: 17.3% (2001)
nuclear: 0%
Oil – production: 346,200 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil – consumption: 218,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - exports / imports: 332,100 bbl/day (2001), 195,000 bbl/day (2001)
Oil – proved reserves: 1.23 billion bbl (37257)
Agriculture - products: barley, wheat, potatoes, sugar beets; pork, dairy products; fish
Exports: $56.3 billion f.o.b. (2002 est.)
Exports - commodities: machinery and instruments, meat and meat products, dairy products, fish, chemicals, furniture, ships, windmills
Exports - partners: Germany 17.1%, Sweden 11.6%, UK 7.8%, US 6.8%, France 5.8%, Norway 5.7%, Japan 4.4% (2002)
Imports: $47.9 billion f.o.b. (2002 est.)
Imports - commodities: machinery and equipment, raw materials and semimanufactures for industry, chemicals, grain and foodstuffs, consumer goods
Imports - partners: Germany 22.9%, Sweden 10.7%, UK 8.7%, Netherlands 7.8%, France 6%, Norway 4.9%, Italy 4.4% (2002)
Debt - external: $21.7 billion (2000)
Economic aid - donor: ODA, $1.63 billion (1999)
Currency: Danish krone (DKK)
Currency code: DKK
Exchange rates: Danish kroner per US dollar - 7.89 (2002), 8.32 (2001), 8.08 (2000), 6.98 (1999), 6.7 (1998)
Fiscal year: calendar year
Source: CIA World Fact Book