Analysis Milk
Chinese meat ban barely affects Dutch market
China has banned the import of Dutch beef due to the spread of the bluetongue virus. A trade ban from such a major player may seem at first glance to be a major setback for the Dutch cattle sector, but in practice there is hardly any trade between the countries.
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In 2022, the European Union exported only 3.918 tons of beef, according to Eurostat figures. The year before, 4.928 tons of beef were imported. Of this, the Netherlands accounted for 291 tons in 2022 and 664 tons in 2021. In the past, there was somewhat more trade. In 2019, Europe exported a record 19.245 tons of beef to China. The Netherlands exported 9.057 tons that year. However, compared to total exports, these volumes are also virtually negligible. In total, the European Union exports between 1 million and 1,2 million tons of beef per year. The Netherlands exported 2021 tons of beef in 86.299 and 2022 tons of beef in 71.242.
Moreover, the exports that do exist are rather loose. For example, in 2016 the Netherlands almost had the exclusive right to export to China. That year, the European Union exported 9.949 tons of beef. The Netherlands accounted for no less than 7.817 tonnes of this. These types of outliers also occurred in other countries. For example, Ireland exported 5.523 tonnes of beef to China compared to 6.856 tonnes from the entire EU.
Although it is not the only year that Dutch exports exceed the rest of the EU. Between 2016 and 2018, the Netherlands was consistently responsible for the majority of exports and in 2019 the Netherlands almost equaled the record volume from 2019 with approximately half of all European exports. Although export volumes in these years were not negligible, they are also not substantial compared to export volumes in the same period. At that time, the Netherlands exported around 110.000 to 120.000 tons outside the European Union.