For the past four years, Danish Crown has sustained a high export rate of more than 81 per cent, which significantly exceeds the average for the international meat industry.

Danish Crown CEO Kjeld Johannesen said: "We are extremely proud of this award. It is a great recognition of the dedicated efforts that Danish Crown employees have made for many years – and continue to make every day – to generate excellent opportunities for selling Danish pork all over the world.

"Danish pork is recognised across the globe for its high eating quality and world-class food safety, making consumers in a number of significant export markets prefer Danish pork."

Among others, the Russian, Chinese and Japanese markets help drive Danish Crown's export growth with exports to China and Russia accounting for 10 per cent and 20 per cent of total Danish exports to these countries, respectively The value of Danish Crown's pork exports to Japan equates to just over the total Danish imports of goods from Japan.

"Thanks to the high Danish food safety standards, Danish Crown now has access to all world markets. At the same time, having built long-standing and fruitful partnerships and achieved lasting relations with most of our customers is also very important for us," said Mr Johannesen.

For several years, Danish Crown has made dedicated efforts to cultivate non-EU markets such as Japan, the USA, China and Australia. South America and Viet Nam also look promising in relation to future Danish pork exports.

Deputy Chief Executive of Danish Crown Søren Tinggaard and COO Søren F. Eriksen were presented with the award by HRH The Prince Consort Henrik at Fredensborg Palace.

About the award

King Frederik The Ninth’s Honorary Award is for meritorious efforts for Danish export. The award was set up in 1970 by a royal resolution for the purpose of promoting, supporting and encouraging the export of Danish products and services.

Facts about Danish Crown's export of pork

• Danish Crown is the world's largest pork exporter
• Danish Crown exports 1.4 billion kg of pork a year (2010/11)
• Every hour all year round, Danish Crown ships a container with pork to China
• Every 50 minutes all year round, Danish Crown ships a container with pork to the UK
• Every year, Danish Crown ships 33 million trotters to China. This corresponds to 6,732 km of trotters if you line up all of them. There are 7,305 km from Copenhagen to Beijing, which means that it would take just 13 months of Danish Crown's production of trotters to form a line extending all the way to the Chinese capital.