End to 20 year Danish can ban
would lift a 20-year-old ban on canned beer and soft drinks.
Denmark bowed to European Union complaints on Monday and said it would lift a 20-year-old ban on canned beer and soft drinks.
The ban will end on January 23 on condition that retailers charge a deposit of 1.50 Danish crowns ($0.18) per can, as on bottles, to ensure that customers return the empty cans to shops, the Environment Ministry said.
The move, expected following centre-right parties' victory in a parliamentary election last year, is likely to allow increased imports of beer and Danish brewers say they are prepared. Analysts say the effect on the small Danish market will be modest, however.
Denmark, which primarily has allowed beers and soft drinks in reusable bottles, had been fighting for the right to uphold the can ban in an EU court until the change of government. The European Commission brought a case against Denmark for breach of the European Union's packaging directive.
"The (environmental) difference is so marginal that there is no basis for a case," Environment Minster Hans Christian Schmidt said at a news conference on Monday. He said he had sent a letter to the EU Commission asking it to drop the charges.
"We very much welcome this initiative by the Danish government," Pia Ahrenkilde-Hansen, spokeswoman for EU Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom, told journalists.
"The Commission has for years argued there is no contradiction in this particular case between maintaining a very high level of protection of the environment and actually enabling packaging to move freely across borders," Ahrenkilde-Hansen said.
If the Commission assesses the Danish decision complies with Community legislation it will ask the court to stop the case.
Breweries in neighbouring Germany are expected to take advantage of the change. Many Danes bring back canned beer from visits to Germany, which has been allowed.
Brewers say canned beers will be more expensive than bottles because the cans would be used only once, while bottles on average are reused 25 times, lowering packaging tax per unit.
Brewers pay a packaging tax of 0.50 crowns per bottle to the Danish government but the tax on cans has not been announced.
"Canned beer could take up to 20 per cent of the market, which for the main part will be supplied by Carlsberg and Bryggerigruppen," Danske Bank analyst Peter Kondrup said.
Carlsberg CARCb.CO with a market share of around 70 percent and Denmark's second-biggest brewer Bryggerigruppen BRYG.CO, are ready to supply canned beers as soon as the ban is lifted.
"Competition will become fiercer and it will reduce Carlsberg's market share, but not dramatically," Jyske Bank analyst Ulla Mouritsen said.
Foreign beers account for around 1.5 to two per cent of the Danish beer market.
"We've seen only a few foreign brewers in Denmark. The market is not very attractive, it is small and dominated by one big player, which makes it difficult to enter and the ban on canned beers has been an obstacle," Mouritsen said.
Kondrup expected foreign brewers to take less than five percent of Denmark's beer market after the ban is removed.
The annual beer consumption in Denmark totals around 545 million litres, making Denmark Europe's number five in beer consumption per capita.
(additional reporting by David Evans in Brussels)
