CO-OPEEATIVE SLAUGHTEK-HOUSES 67 



The production of bacon in Denmark is very largely an 

 export industry, and by far the greatest part of the bacon is 

 sent to Great Britain, most of it being so-called " Wiltshire 

 cut " bacon, i.e. sides with the gammon or ham attached. 

 In 1905 only 7'1 per cent, of the number of pigs killed at the 

 co-operative factories were for consumption in Denmark, 

 and only 4*6 per cent, of those killed at the private factories, 

 while the corresponding figures for the year 1913 were 7*7 per 

 cent, and 8*3 per cent. The value of the produce exported 

 from these factories in 1913 amounted to one quarter of the 

 value of the total export of Danish produce. In 1913 the 

 co-operative factories turned out pig produce to the value of 

 £8,794,000, of which £7,355,000 represent bacon and hams ; 

 the corresponding values for the private factories were £1,722,000 

 and £1,394,000. 



Fifteen co-operative factories have combined to form a 

 limited company, the Danish Bacon Company, Ltd., in London, 

 which undertakes the export to England and sale of bacon from 

 these factories. The company, in Cow Cross Street, West 

 Smithfield, employs 150 people, and acts as wholesale merchants. 



The average capital value of a co-operative bacon factory 

 {i.e. the value of buildings, machinery, fittings, goods on hand, 

 etc.) is about £17,700, with an average debt (loan on buildings 

 and working capital) of £8,800. 



In the year 1897 the Co-operative Bacon Factories formed 

 The Union of Danish Co-operative Bacon Factories, with an 

 office in Copenhagen, and the following year M. P. Blem was 

 elected chairman of the Union, and retained that position till 

 in 1908 he became a director of the Credit Association for the 

 Islands. The Union has in many ways been of service both 

 to the factories and to the country in general. It effected a 

 very cheap marine insurance for bacon, whereby the factories 

 saved an appreciable sum annually. It averted a strike in 

 1902 which had threatened to stop the shipping between the 

 Danish port of Esbjerg and Harwich, by which route most of 

 the Danish bacon was shipped to England ; as the dock labourers 

 in Esbjerg intended to assist the stokers, who stood out for 

 higher wages, by refusing to load the ships, which would have 

 caused a great loss to the farmers, the Union arranged so that 



