News NZO
'Quality contributes to the economic importance of dairy'
The Dutch Dairy Organization recently released the report 'Zuivel op high level', in which the economic importance and quality of the Dutch dairy sector are put in the spotlight. Is our quality really so self-evident and how does this manifest itself in import and export?
Dutch dairy products are known worldwide for their high quality and proven food safety, according to the report. This is also the reason why our products are doing well in the global market. This is reflected in the export figures, among other things. The value of dairy exports contributes well to the Dutch economy.
Production and economy
Within Europe we are doing quite well in milk production, especially considering the size of our country. In total, European milk production amounts to about 166,6 million tons of milk. Germany is a top supplier with over 33 million tons. The Netherlands closes the top 5, after France (2), the United Kingdom (3) and Poland (4) with almost 14,1 million tons.
The total economy in 2018 was €720,4 billion. The agricultural sector contributed €46,5 billion, of which €7,6 billion came from the dairy sector. The sector is also doing well in terms of employment. In 2019, 35.200 people worked on a dairy farm and 13.800 people in the dairy industry. Our dairy sector is internationally oriented, which is also reflected in the export figures.
Netherlands dairy country
Together, Dutch dairy farmers with 16.260 companies and almost 1,58 million cows produced more than 14 million tons of milk in 2019. More than half (56%) is processed into cheese, 15% into milk powder, 8% into consumer milk and products, 5% into processed into condensed milk, 2% becomes butter and butter oil. The last 14% goes to 'other' products.
Many of these products go to other countries. The total export value amounted to €7,8 billion. The majority of this value, 73,1%, remained in Europe in 2019. The second largest importer of our products is Asia at 1%, followed by Africa at 15,3%. As far as imports are concerned, it lags considerably behind. We imported €5,6 billion worth of dairy products to our country, of which 3,8% of the value comes from Europe.
Cheese exports in particular are doing well. Of the total exports, the export of cheese amounts to €3,655 billion. The largest part of this, almost €1,2 billion, goes to Germany. Belgium is number 2, which imports considerably less at €476 million. The top 3 is closed by France with €373 million.
Knowledge, skills and quality
Not only do we export our dairy products to other countries, we also use our dairy knowledge as an export product. The Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality contributes to this by promoting Dutch knowledge, expertise and quality worldwide. "The Netherlands is being put on the map as a guide country for sustainable agricultural production elsewhere and the Netherlands is positioning itself as the country that produces high-quality products. The ministry thus supports the export of Dutch agricultural products," according to NZO.
According to Hein Schumacher, chairman of NZO and director of FrieslandCampina, we find the quality of our dairy so self-evident that we never talk specifically about quality. "Consumers must be able to trust that every dairy product is safe," said the chairman. "A lot is needed to maintain this quality, everyone in the Dutch dairy chain is doing their best for that. We have a reputation to uphold, our dairy is appreciated worldwide, it has a rock-solid reputation and we must do that." keep it that way." In a certain sense, the help of the LNV contributes to this.
Jorine Cosse
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