Arla products boycotted in Middle East again

The Union Cooperative Society in Dubai has pulled all Danish products off its shelves in protest to the republishing of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban in February.

In 2006, Arla Foods had to face the widespread boycotts in the Middle East over the Danish caricatures of Prophet Mohammad. The drawings which were published in a Danish newspaper depicted an image of the prophet wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse. Islamic traditions prohibit any depiction of the prophet including respectful ones to prevent the use of such images that would lead to idolatry. The offended parties demanded an apology from the Danish government.

The Danish government stood its ground that the issue is primarily on freedom of the press, but Arla Foods felt the full force of the appeal for a trade boycott of Danish products. The company has spent over 40 years to build a big business in the Middle East and its sales had plummeted to zero. It had to lay-off as much as 100 people because of the inexistent demand. For a company that had annual sales as high as €307 million.

In March 2006, Arla took out full-page advertising in Saudi Arabia, apologizing for the cartoons and indicating Arla’s great respect for Islam in the country. Arla Foods was seen by many, especially the Danes to have bended its knees too quickly to the offended parties. Although Arla had successfully out an end to its boycott in the Middle East region, the threat of the Danish public boycotting Arla products remains; and  boycotts of Danish products in the Middle East have resurfaced with republushing of the controversial cartoon.

Formed through the merger in 2000 of two of Northern Europe's largest dairy companies, Swedish-based Arla Foods and Denmark’s MD Foods, Arla Foods is a dairy cooperative owned by milk producers in Denmark and Sweden. Arla Foods trades in 120 countries worldwide, with production facilities in Denmark, the UK, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Poland and Norway. Saudia Arabia is Arla's largest market outside Europe.