Danish-Swedish dairy company Arla Foods said it is losing about £1m of sales a day in the Middle East due to Muslim anger over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a Danish newspaper.
Europe's second-largest dairy producer said a boycott called last week against Danish cheese and butter had hit sales hard in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and throughout the region.
Arla said it is losing around £1m in turnover daily after its products had been taken off the shelves of shops in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait and described the situation in Egypt and Lebanon as critical. Algeria, Morocco and Oman were less affected, it added.
The Middle East is Arla's biggest market outside Europe with annual revenue of around $500 million. Saudi Arabia accounts for 60% of that.
Diplomatic relations soured between Denmark and a number of Muslim countries after Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published cartoons of Mohammad, including one in which he appeared to carry a bomb in his turban.
The outrage today spread across the Islamic world. Muslims condemned the cartoons as blasphemous, as more European newspapers published them, arguing for freedom of speech.
Up to 300 militant Indonesian Muslims went on a rampage in the lobby of a building housing the Danish embassy in Jakarta, and Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen summoned foreign envoys in Copenhagen to discuss the outcry.
Arla currently has 1,200 employees in the Middle East.
