The export of Dutch food and food products to China has more than doubled in the past five years, mainly due to milk powder. This puts meat and dairy in second place, after the sale to China of machines and mechanics made in the Netherlands. This is evident from new figures from Statistics Netherlands.
In 2019, the Netherlands earned 4.6 billion euros from exports of goods to China. That was 53 percent more than the 3.0 billion euros in 2015. Earnings from the export of machinery and food have increased in particular. In the first three quarters of last year, the export value of goods to China was higher.
Dutch companies earned more than 1.3 billion euros in 2019 from the export of machines and parts to China, almost doubling compared to 2015. This concerns, for example, specialized machines such as chip machines, machines for the food industry and agricultural machines.
The export earnings from food (including baby milk powder) were 728 million euros and 469 million euros from meat (tripled since 2015). China is an important destination for baby milk powder. Meat climbed from fifth to third place in the top ten export products.
Other lucrative exports are high-quality plastics (198 million euros), pharmaceuticals (151 million euros), and metal and metal products (129 million euros). Finally, the Netherlands also earned a lot from the export of scientific instruments to China
In 2019, the Netherlands earned an average of 57 cents from every euro of Dutch-made products exported to China. That is more than the average for total exports of Dutch products (54 euro cents), but slightly less than in 2015 (60 euro cents).