Denmark is at the forefront regarding optimizing production at all steps of the value chain and when it comes to cattle breeding. The Danish company VikingGenetics is a suitable example of this efficiency. VikingGenetics is a specialist in offering breeding solutions where high milk production are in focus. The company’s breeding goal has made a substantial positive impact on the dairy business. 

High level of productivity

One of the strongholds of the Danish food cluster is the high level of productivity, also in the milk industry. The journey has been extraordinary; 50 years ago, a Danish cow produced 15 litres per day and today, the production per day and per cow is more than double, 38 litres.

There is no doubt that Danish cows are among the most productive ones in the world; the global average yield per cow and per year is 2.200 litres while a Danish cow of the Holstein breed averages 10.300 litres per year. This successful development is due to the high level of specialization in optimal breeding solutions from Danish dairy farmers and companies, such as VikingGenetics, where efficiency plays a significant role.

the global average yield per cow and per year is 2.200 liters while a Danish cow of the Holstein breed averages 10.300 liters per year

Using genetics to achieve a more efficient production

The breeding solutions of VikingGenetics score high when their productivity is measured. The Nordic Total Merit (NTM) index is a unique index that combines different genetic traits that are heritable when matching bulls and cows such as milk production, health, and conformation. VikingGenetics uses the index to offer genetics from bulls that can increase production and health the most. For every ten extra units that a cow scores on the NTM-index, an additional 100 EUR are made in annual revenue. Some score 40+, meaning that they belong to the best 2.5 percent of all cows.

Companies like VikingGenetics are one of the reasons why Denmark can continuously be on top when it comes to innovation and efficiency. When choosing breeding solutions from VikingGenetics, farmers can thus obtain a maximized production.

Safeguarding heirloom species and varieties from extinction is not only a matter of keeping biodiversity. It also promotes diversity in food innovation and exceptional culinary experiences.

Once almost facing total distinction, varieties of the Stevns cherry, named after its traceable origin in a small area in south-eastern Denmark, are now planted and harvested in many parts of Europe.

Unique raw material

Thanks to serious experimental testing of Stevns cherry sorts at the beginning of the Millennium, more than a handful of varieties are now grown systematically in accordance with local growth conditions. These surviving sorts show different unique, innate qualities that are increasingly cherished by growers and wine producers aiming for low-yield, high-quality fruits.

when nurtured by skilled growers, the cherries develop the finest culinary qualities as a raw material, particularly for wine-making

The Stevns cherry varieties, belonging to the sour cherry species, find their ultimate growth conditions along the coastlines of southern Denmark. Here, when nurtured by skilled growers, the cherries develop the finest culinary qualities as a raw material, particularly for wine-making.

Unfolding the quality

The local Frederiksdal Estate has found a way to turn the unique acidity of different Stevns cherry sorts into sought-after wines. The innate tastes and qualities of the fruits are unfolded at the estate in a meticulous work that acknowledges that fruits will show notable differences in taste even in two adjoining fields.

Once the cherries are harvested, the natural wild yeasts on their skin starts to ferment, bringing their flavour to its full intensity. The cherries are then pressed and the juice poured into steel, wood or glass tanks giving a range of different taste profiles. The skins and stones are returned to the plantation to fertilise the soil.

The outcome is award-winning products, just as unrivalled as the cherries.

Using only fruits that are hard to sell otherwise, two gastronomic entrepreneurs turn waste fruit into cider served at top-level restaurants.

The Copenhagen suburbs are full of apple trees that, year after year, are laden with fruit. Back in 2011, two students with a passion for gastronomy realised that most of that fruit went to waste, left to rot on the ground.

Beginning of an adventure

Although their actual interest was directed towards wine, taking up cider production was literally right up their street: they started going from door to door asking garden owners if they could take some of their apples. This first batch of mixed garden windfall apples was the beginning of a real cider adventure.

More than 85.000 litres of cider a year is produced from windfall apples

First year’s harvest made 65 bottles, pressed, fermented and bottled in a small suburb garage. A Swedish Michelin restaurant bought the whole lot and the two entrepreneurs realised their ability to confront traditional French cider production by unconventional methods and supplement the wine lists of gourmet restaurants with a taste profile that matched the New Nordic Cuisine.

Turning waste fruit into gold

Today, their company is called Æblerov (Danish for apple scrumping) and produces more than 85.000 litres a year. Production as well as exports are in rapid growth. The cider is enjoyed in the Scandinavian and German markets so far, and interest is growing from the rest of the world.

Æblerov now produces most of its cider using fruit from organic plantations. Only the apples that are marked or otherwise unattractive to consumers are used. For Danish fruit producers, it is a welcome way to earn money for fruit that is otherwise hard to sell.

Looking ahead for new business opportunities is a prerequisite for a market-relevant and economically feasible agriculture. A new joint research project is mapping an exciting potential and will assist in action.

The balance between financial and environmental sustainability is always a challenge for the food sector. This balance – complying with political demands and structural challenges, alongside the development of economically sound farms – requires innovative and ‘thinking-beyond-the-box’ solutions.

Even in a small country like Denmark, diverse physical and cultural conditions for agriculture is evident. This suggests a potential for new products through a systematic approach to developing provenance foods. That is, location-specific produce and products reflecting the local or regional, distinctive characteristics ­– in short, the Danish terroir.

Mapping the potential

However, key knowledge gaps hindering a coordinated, strategic approach to a provenance food sector development have been identified. As a result, a new strategy is emerging within the Danish food cluster. At Aarhus University, the Department of Agroecology and Department of Management have joined forces with local authorities and private partners in the Provenance DK research project.

Even in a small country like Denmark, diverse physical and cultural conditions suggest a more systematic focus on developing provenance foods

The goal of the project is to address this knowledge gap and to identify potentials for terroir brands to develop by mapping the specific opportunities for a Danish provenance food sector.

From words to action

The project team have produced a report detailing the Danish food atlas – a report that shows the potential for a specific product within a certain area. Further, the report also provides inputs to new business models for local foods and assists the coordination between food networks, producers and municipalities. Find the full report through the link on the right side of this page.

 

Innovative collaboration from farm to fork has set new standards for quality in Danish dairy.

Arla Unika has grown out of a big idea – to bring Danish dairy to a world-class gastronomic level through a collaboration between passionate dairy professionals, chefs and culinary entrepreneurs.

By 2002 Arla was already a leading global dairy brand exporting products as well as know-how. However, progressive Danish chefs at the time expressed a need for alternative gastronomic dairy products made from culinary virtues such as diversity and unique tastes.

Through a continuous development and collaboration, the outcome is a wide range of cheese and milk products that has set new standards for quality

Collaboration from farm to fork

Arla eventually listened to the chefs and entered the fruitful collaboration. The starting point was artisanal skill, new knowledge, and curiosity – all set in a creative environment where ideas were flowing and failures seen as natural and necessary steps towards a final uniqueness.

Through a continuous development and collaboration, the outcome is a wide range of cheese and milk products that has set new standards for quality, creating culinary uniqueness without compromising the highest food safety standards.

The shining example

A shining example is Sirius. Named after the brightest star in the northern sky, this cheese cuts across the cheese processing tradition to resemble the methods used in the production of charcuterie products.

Created as a white and blue mould cheese, it is dehydrated, washed in red rind culture, stored moist and then, finally, dehydrated again. The process results in a new type of cheese with a firm texture and well-balanced mould flavour, complementing the round butter and cream notes.

When testing and developing a new generation of speciality beers, Carlsberg’s Jacobsen brewery does nothing by halves. The Cellarium beer series is proof of that.

Developed during a five-year collaboration with Nordic Food Lab, the Cellarium beers are the outcome of innovative experimentation with new raw materials, methods and sensory profiles. The aim was to produce speciality beers that the very best restaurants would want to serve.

Gastro collaboration

The Nordic Food Lab provided gastronomic knowledge and access to high-quality Nordic ingredients. In the Carlsberg laboratory, the research team developed the recipes and were responsible for preparing the raw materials for test brewing, filling the wooden casks in Jacobsen’s cellars, and tapping the final brew into small champagne bottles.

The beers are the outcome of innovative experimentation with new raw materials, methods and sensory profiles

Beer with cellaring potential

The first two beers in the series are Jacobsen Chanterelle Lager and Jacobsen Sour Rye. The former is flavoured with Swedish chanterelles and matured in mulberry wood casks. The latter is fermented by lactic acid and matured in oak casks. Both brews contain more than 10 percent alcohol making them suitable for aging.

The brand new and limited quantity, meant only for menu cards at top-level restaurants, is first being tested in few gourmet restaurants. Pairing food with the sophisticated brews is a true gourmet challenge and monitoring the crucial guest feedback is part of the launch. Thus, the Michelin star restaurant Ti Trin Ned (Ten Steps Down) in central Jutland has adapted a starter to the Jacobsen Chanterelle Lager which has been received with great success.

Due to the implementation of new EU legislation, organic farmers must from 2019 use 100% organic feed in the production of organic livestock. Danish research has found a new innovative way to turn surplus mussels into sustainable, organic feed.

From the 1st of January 2019, a new set of legislations from the EU has come into force requiring organic farmers to use 100% organic feed in their production of livestock. For a country like Denmark, it forces several farmers to find new types of organic feed. This also reflects a larger picture where several farmers around the world are focused on finding new, innovate ways of feeding their livestock in a sustainable way.

Research project to create new feeding solutions

Because of the new legislation, researchers from The National Food Insitute, Technical University of Denmark, the DTU FOOD, have developed an innovative solution that can turn mussels otherwise too small to be used as food for humans into a sustainable and organic animal feed. The solution includes a process where the surplus mussels (including the shells, which are all rich on vitamins and protein) go through a meat grinder and then in a compact filter that splits the mass into a solid and liquid substance. Some of the mussels are the size of a sunflower seed and all the mussels are a maximum of 4.5 centimetres long. If they are longer than that, they are considered eligible for human consumption.This causes high utilisation of what was otherwise a residual product and lays the ground for a more sustainable, organic production.

New feeding solution is created on the basis of surplus mussels

Circular economy is important in a sustainable production

The research is part of a larger project lead by the National Institute of Aquatic Resources, DTU AQUA, and reflects the way Denmark is at the forefront of sustainable agricultural production. By using waste products, DTU FOOD and DTU AQUA, together with the rest of the project partners, thus helps to obtain a more sustainable production pattern, which is an important approach to reach the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals in line with other innovative solutions like extracting protein from green herbage so it can be used as feed for pigs and poultry

Like in other areas of the Danish agricultural production, roses and other flowers have encountered a technological development. The Danish flower producer, Rosa Danica, is one of Europe’s market leaders with an annual production of 10.5 million plants where more than 90 percent are exported. By thoroughly scrutinizing and implementing technology in their production, Rosa Danica has obtained a production with a minimum of chemicals and a consistently high quality.

Flowers are known to be very fragile and production must be done with caution. It is difficult to obtain a standardised result and, very often, a large part of the production has to be discarded. Many flowers also tend to wither or battle with unwanted plants before they can be sold. There is therefore an unleashed potential for many flower producers to increase their productivity and lower their loss.

Using technologies to obtain a better production

Since its foundation in 1987, Rosa Danica has implemented a wide range of technical solutions that can combat the usual downsides of flower production.

One way to get a more efficient production is to expose the roses to UV-C light. The light simply treats the surface of the roses so that they do not get infected by mildew which is a very common disease among roses.

Another way of obtaining higher quality is to use a new technique – so-called mechanical stress.  The technique means that during, night-time when there is no one at the facilities, a large plastic foil is swiped over the plants, back and forth many times. This causes the roses to grow more compactly, be shorter and with a larger flowerhead, which is something that many customers want.

yearly production of 10.5 million plants where more than 90% are exported

High-quality roses to the whole world

The result of high-tech production of roses from Rosa Danica is clear. More than 90 percent of the company’s pot rose production is exported to countries around the world – many of which are outside EU’s borders.

Rosa Danica’s production stands as an example of how agricultural production in general is taking place in Denmark. Through the implementation of technologies, Danish farmers provide reliable security of supply and a consistently high quality.

Securing the global food supply while protecting our natural resources are one of today’s most pressing challenges. That includes maximising value and reducing food loss in the production of pork and beef.

The cooperative meat processing company Danish Crown is a good example. In its slaughterhouses, every pig is cut into as many as 150 pieces, which are exported all over the world.

Value in every part

The pork loin is popular in Europe and the United States, the ham is exported to Italy, France and Poland and the head, tail and toes are delicacies enjoyed in China. The intestines are used for sausage casings while the blood and other by-products are valued for medicine. Other protein products are used in food and pet food production.

In slaughterhouses, every pig is cut into more than 150 pieces, which are exported all over the world with nothing going to waste

A lifetime of production

Milk and beef production are a similar story. A Danish dairy cow is a source of products throughout its life, producing on average 25 litres of milk a day. Once slaughtered, every part of the animal goes into food, lifestyle products and medicine. Each cow also has around 90kg of bones, tallow and fats, which can be used in bioenergy production.

Deriving full value from each part of the animal is critical to sustainable growth in businesses and nothing goes to waste at Danish Crown.

In the Greenlandic fishing company, Royal Greenland, they are reaping the fruits of a closely collaborating value chain and now provides even higher quality cod to global consumers.

One of the largest challenges facing the global food industry today is the importance of obtaining an efficient and well-organised value chain. Some benefits of a closely connected value chain in the fishing industry are fresher fish of higher quality for the consumer and less waste.

Innovative Concept from Royal Greenland

Royal Greenland has launched a concept that leads to a fresher, whiter and tastier cod. The name of Royal Greenland’s concept is Nutaaq® – which means ‘new’ in Greenlandic. Through the close collaboration from the local fishermen and throughout the value chain, cod from the Nutaaq® scheme will have a maximum of two hours from water to freezer. Altogether, this secures cod that looks, cooks and tastes better.

The result is a high-quality fish product that tastes better and is produced with minimum impact on the environment

Traditional low impact fishing methods and higher quality

Danish food companies are always working towards more sustainable production methods. The fishing of Nutaaq® takes place in shallow waters with net traps that the cod swim into themselves without being able to escape. This fishing method leaves the seabed untouched and is carried out from small boats and dinghies that have low fuel consumption.

The result is a high-quality fish product that tastes better and is produced in a sustainable way. The Nutaaq® programme shows how Danish companies obtain several benefits from its culture of close collaboration across the value chain.