Carlsberg response regarding water pollution in Gansu, China 13 April 2007

Carlsberg sent the following statement to the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre in response to the report by Jongo News regarding water pollution by a brewery partially owned by Carlsberg in Gansu, China:

“Carlsberg beer factory pollutes water in Gansu”, 9 April 2007: http://www.jongonews.com/articles/07/0409/11787/MTE3ODcRoc7eqL2.html

A few comments to clarify the case:

 Carlsberg is a 30% shareholder in the brewery

 We entered as a shareholder in late 2004

 We raised the water pollution issue immediately and it was formally decided on Board level in 2005 to start an improvement project

 This in full cooperation with local authorities and discussions about funding and timing took place

 The actual construction of the waste water treatment plant started in 2006

 2/3 is paid by the brewery/JV and 1/3 paid by local authorities/government (total amount around 4m RMB) – we were pleased with this support from local authorities

 The waste water treatment plant starts operating next week!

We are sorry about the timing in this case – we have actually tried and hoped to get the waste water treatment plant in place in 2006. On the other hand, we are very happy it opens next week.

Carlsberg is very concerned with environmental protection and do all our best to make improvements in this area. We are very committed to West China as a region where we are involved in 19 breweries and we do everything we can to be good corporate citizens as well as good business partners

Soren Ravn

Vice President - Greater China Supply Chain, HR & Business Development Carlsberg Brewery Hong Kong Limited