Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1938, Blaðsíða 159

INTER-NORTHERN COMMERCE
149
of her imports of fertilizers come from Norway. These goods
Denmark will never be in a position to supply for herself, because
she is far too poor in forests and cheap sources of power. In spite
of all this, Denmark’s importance as a customer to the other
Northern countries must not be overrated: it must be borne in
mind that she only takes 5 per cent. of Sweden’s and 2.5 per cent.
of Finland’s total exports of wood and manufactures of wood,
pulp, and paper, and only 16 per cent. of Norway’s chemical
manufactures.
Unfortunately, the Danish export trade with our Northern
neighbours is less firmly based on natural resources than their ex-
ports to Denmark. More than half our total exports of feedstuffs
go to Finland, Norway, and Sweden, and the same countries take
more than one third of our exports of vegetable oils. ¥e have
a very considerable production of vegetable oils and feedstuffs,
though the raw materials are not available in Denmark and must
be imported from overseas countries, especially Eastern and
Southern Asia. The basis of this industry is a very heavy domestic
consumption of oils, especially by the margarine industry, and of
agricultural feedstuffs, and it is thus bound up with our intensive
agriculture and our great export trade in butter. The Danish oil
industry and the allied feedstuff industries have not only suc-
ceeded in holding the home market, but they have also gained a
market for their products abroad, especiaíly in the Northern
countries. It is the home market which has made the development
of these industries possible, and it is on this market that they
chiefly rest. Their footing on the foreign markets is less secure:
any country with a sufficient consumption of oils and feedstuffs
possesses the conditions of an oil and feedstuff industry, for any
such country can import the necessary raw materials. In fact,
Sweden and Norway have during recent years worked up a con-
siderable import trade in soy beans, copra, and ground nuts for
their young oil industries.
Swedish, Norwegian, and Finnish goods thus enjoy a safer
market in Denmark than vice versa. There are several of their
products which we cannot do without and which we can never
supply for ourselves, but our Northern neighbours do not stand
in the same need of Danish goods. If our transit trade were to
cease, about one fourth of our export trade with the other
Northern countries would cease too. If they were to supply their
own vegetable oils and feedstuffs by working up an import trade