Article 1: Boycott of Arla Foods in Middle East, a Danish company seling to Muslims

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Article 1: Boycott of Arla Foods in Middle East

In September 2005, cartoons featuring caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad were published in Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. The row erupted on the beginning of February when the cartoons were republished in a number of other European newspapers.

Now the Muslim world is refusing to buy Danish goods in protest over the cartoons published in the Danish newspaper. Due to this boycott Arla is losing £1million a day.

Arla has also sent home 170 employees across Denmark due to the impact of the reduced sales. In total so far, Arla foods say that the ongoing boycott in the Middle East has so far cost them between £40million and £50million.

The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten has apologized for any offence caused, but not for publishing the cartoon, and Denmark’s Prime Minister has also tried to diffuse the crisis, but still sales of the Danish products have grounded to a halt across the Middle East.

Arla had built up their business in the Middle Eastern countries for 40 years, and had production in Saudi Arabia for 20 years, and then within five days it was all in ruins.

Outside Europe, the Middle East is Arla Foods’ most important market, with Saudi Arabia as the largest single market. Butter, feta, processed cheese and full-cream milk powder are the core products in Middle Eastern markets.

”Our challenge is to regain consumer confidence in the Middle East,” Managing Director Peder Tuborgh told Arla Foods’ 140 co-operative members and 10 staff representatives gathered at the Board of Representatives’ meeting in Aalborg on Wednesday and Thursday. ”Despite the difficult situation, we believe that Arla has a future in the Middle East,” adds Peder Tuborgh. “Over 40 years, we have worked hard to build our brands in the Middle East in order to provide our co-operative members with a stable income. As a result, we have an intimate knowledge of the market and we will not give up easily.” (Source from ).

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The two issues I am going to relate the article to are, consumer behaviour, and consumer social responiblity. With consumer behaviour I am going to find out the external factors influencing the consumers’ buying decisions in Saudi Arabia, also I am going to discuss how Arla Foods have tried to advertise to influence the people who make the buying decisions. I will also find out where this product is ranked in importance to the consumers’ needs, and how it affects the consumers’ behaviour. With consumer social responsibility I will discuss how the negative PR is giving Arla a bad ...

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