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Business is booming for the world's biggest sperm bank, Denmark's Cryos, which is struggling to meet demand despite a soaring number of donors and new offices opening around the world.
At Cryos headquarters in Denmark's second-biggest city Aarhus, chief executive Ole Schou smiles broadly, sitting at his desk adorned with pictures of cheerful babies as he speaks of the company's unexpected success.
Two years ago, he was ready to shut down the business, or at least move it abroad, because of a Danish tax authority proposal that would have required donors to declare income from their donations, thereby putting their anonymity at risk.
But when it became clear that this would sound the death knell for Cryos, tax authorities withdrew the proposal.
A year later, in 2008, the number of donors had grown threefold, from 30 a day to 100 at its four Danish offices in Aarhus, Copenhagen, Odense and Aalborg, while the number of men applying to be donors had risen from 350 to around 1,000.
Each year, Cryos exports 85 percent of its 15,000 to 20,000 sperm donations to more than 400 clinics in 60 countries.
But despite the rising number of donors, Cryos has a hard time meeting demand.
Around 10 to 15 percent of couples in the world are infertile, according to Schou. Added to that are single women nearing the end of their childbearing years who still want to have a family.
"We help a tsunami of highly-educated, single women who are more demanding, and who prioritized their careers and who want to have a child before it is too late," Schou says.
The phenomenon has surged in the past three or four years, and Cryos "can't meet the avalanche of demand from the western world".
A 55-year-old economist, Schou started the sperm bank in a tiny cellar office in 1987 out of a desire to help couples who couldn't have children.
Cryos, which means "freeze" in Greek and refers to the sperm conservation process, was originally started to help cancer patients who wanted to freeze their sperm before undergoing chemotherapy.
Cryos' sperm has produced more than 14,000 full-term pregnancies since 1991, and the company has received piles of letters of thanks from women around the world, Schou says.
And while the sperm from a Danish Viking with blond hair and blue eyes may be exactly what clients are looking for in northern Europe, it "is far from the ideal in other parts of the world". "That's why we've opened a franchise in New York and another one in Mumbai, in India."
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(Agencies)
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全球最大的精子銀行丹麥克瑞奧斯公司生意非常火爆，盡管捐精者人數飆升，且公司還在世界各地新開設了幾家分公司，但仍供不應求。
在位于丹麥第二大城市奧爾胡斯的克瑞奧斯公司總部，董事長奧利·休烏在談及公司始料未及的成功時開懷大笑，此時他正坐在辦公桌旁，桌上擺滿了開心嬰兒的照片。
他在兩年前已準備關門大吉，或至少移師海外，因為當時丹麥的稅務當局提議，捐精者應申報捐獻所得，這意味著他們的身份有可能被泄露。
但當稅務當局意識到這將毀掉克瑞奧斯公司的生意后，他們最終收回成命。
在一年之后的2008年，公司位于丹麥奧爾胡斯、哥本哈根、歐登塞和奧爾堡的四個分公司每天接待的捐精者從30人增至100人，是原來的3倍多，而申請捐獻的人則從每天350人增至大約1000人。
克瑞奧斯公司每年接受的捐贈精子有15000至20000枚，其中80%出口至60個國家的400多個診所。
盡管捐精者人數飆升，克瑞奧斯公司仍感到供不應求。
休烏稱，全球大約有10%到15%的夫妻無法生育，而且快要超過生育年齡的單身女性也想有個家庭。
休烏說：“我們幫助過一大批高學歷的單身女性，這些人更想生孩子。她們把職業看得最重要，而在生育期結束前還想生個孩子。”
在過去三四年間，這種現象愈加明顯，克瑞奧斯公司“無法滿足西方國家飛漲的需求。”
現年55歲的經濟學家休烏于1987年在一間很小的地下辦公室里創建了這家精子銀行，旨在幫助那些無法生育的夫妻。
在希臘語中，Cryos的意思是“冰凍”，指的是保存精子的過程，公司成立的初衷是為了幫助癌癥患者在化療前保存精子。
休烏稱，自1991年至今，克瑞奧斯公司已幫助14000多人成功受孕，并收到無數封全球各地女性寄來的感謝信。
盡管有著金發藍眼的“丹麥海盜”的精子正是很多客戶想在北歐尋找的，但這“與世界其它地區的理想要求相去甚遠，因此我們在紐約和印度孟買各開設了一家分公司”。
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（英語點津 實習生許雅寧編輯） |
