Key Sectors

Arable farming and horticulture play an important role in the Dutch economy. The Netherlands is among the world's three largest exporters of agricultural products next to the United States and France. In terms of production and export value, the horticulture sector is by far the most important sector in Dutch agriculture. Its export value in 2003 was 6.5 thousand million euros and about 270,000 people worked in this sector. Horticulture includes both the production of ornamentals and of edible crops.

Flowers and plants
Within the horticulture sector, the largest group is made up by producers of ornamental flowers and plants. Dutch producers account for 70% of the total European Union ( EU) export of ornamentals and 93% of the total export of flower bulbs. The largest bulb buyers are the United States, Germany and Japan. Germany, the United Kingdom and France are the largest buyers of our flowers and plants.

Vegetable exports
Nearly a quarter of European vegetable exports originate from the Netherlands, with Germany and the United Kingdom as the largest buyers. The Netherlands is the world's third largest exporter of mushrooms. The largest markets for Dutch mushrooms are Germany, France and the United Kingdom. The Netherlands accounts for more than a third of the total European export of fresh vegetables, particularly mushrooms, tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, cauliflower and bell peppers. The Netherlands exports about 540 million kilograms of tomatoes (333 million kg of tomatoes-on-the-vine). The main markets for Dutch tomatoes are Germany and the United Kingdom.

For centuries, Dutch creativity has inspired and instructed others. Today's masters are icons like fashion designers Viktor & Rolf, architect Rem Koolhaas, illustrator Dick Bruna (creator of Miffy) and DJ Armin van Buuren or DJ Tiësto. They exemplify the strengths of Dutch design: pragmatic, open-minded, conceptual, out of the box and adhering to the 'less is more' principle. Dutch design also fuses innovation, creativity and business. Dutch creativity proves that creativity makes business more innovative, competitive and prosperous. The Dutch, both in past and today, are emphasising this dual value to business and society. Based on the number of people employed in the industry, the creative sector is a relatively small, yet fast-growing part of the Dutch economy.

Environmental TechnologiesBack To Top

The Dutch environmental sector encompasses business activities relating to raw materials, energy, soil, water, waste and noise. It does not include companies engaged in activities relating to nature or landscape. The sector consists of suppliers of products and services for environmental management. Suppliers of products (manufacturers and importers) manufacture supply and/or install equipment and installations designed to prevent or combat pollution. The service providers are engaged in design and engineering activities, project management, policy support, sampling and analysis.

The Dutch food sector is one of the main drivers of the Dutch economy. The Dutch food industry proportionally holds a larger share in the national industrial production than in other countries of the European Union, not in the last place because the Netherlands is the country of origin of several world-renowned food and dairy multinationals. The Netherlands is also a hotbed of R&D in the area of food technology, particularly thanks to the work of the universities of Wageningen, Groningen, Amsterdam, Utrecht and Maastricht. These activities are supported by the presence of world-class institutes and companies in the area of medicine, logistics, sensor technology and other related industries.

The food and stimulant sector includes both the food and stimulant industry and the retail trade in foods and stimulants. The manufacture of machines for the food and stimulant industry is also included in this sector. Although the food and stimulant industry focuses on consumer goods, it also produces semi-finished products for other industrial sectors, including sugar, cocoa, flour and starch. It also supplies animal feed to the farming sector. Some products are supplied to the chemical, pharmaceutical and paper industries. Approximately half of the total turnover of the Dutch food and stimulant industry is generated abroad.

The transport and logistics industry, or transport industry for short, comprises businesses engaged in the transport of passengers and/or goods and providing transport-related services. 

Industry segmentation:

The transport industry may be broken down into four segments:

• Land transport (rail transport, road haulage, pipelines)
• Transport via waterways (inland and marine shipping)
• Air transport
• Services for the transport industry (including shippers, forwarders and storage firms)

The Netherlands is a leading maritime nation. Water, land and trade are the foundations of today's modern maritime cluster in the Netherlands. The country operates Europe's largest inland shipping fleet and is globally leading manufacturers of high-end yachts and complex specials. The Ports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam are amongst the world’s largest. They play a pivotal role in European waterborne logistics. Dutch engineering and construction firms build amazing maritime structures, such as dykes, ports, bridges and artificial islands.

The Netherlands is well known for its historical fight with water and is a highly acknowledged maritime country. The Dutch maritime cluster includes shipbuilding, equipment and service suppliers, as well shipping business. The cluster represents around 3 percent of GNP and 5.5 percent of Dutch exports. The high export quote of more than 60 percent illustrates the international competitiveness and international orientation of this activity. The shipbuilding sector comprises two subsectors, namely the shipyards and the equipment suppliers.

Related Links:
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www.dutch-maritime-network.nl: Dutch Maritime Network
www.hme.nl: Holland Maritime Equipment Association
www.iro.nl: Association of Dutch Suppliers in the Oil and Gas Industry (IRO)
www.hiswa.nl: HISWA Association
www.imares.nl: IMARES
www.marin.nl: MARIN
www.tudelft.nl: Delft University of Technology
www.tno.nl: TNO

For further information on Dutch maritime industry, please refer to http://www.hollandtrade.com/sector-information/maritime-industry/
*** (Brochure download: http://www.hollandtrade.com/publications/made-in-holland/pdf/2010_01_maritime.pdf)

The Netherlands has a very active and strong oil and gas sector. Positioned close to the North Sea and the presence of vast natural gas reserves on- and offshore have for the most part determined the comparative advantage of the sector. Especially the offshore sector is well developed, also due to the maritime history of the Netherlands.

The Netherlands Natural Gas deposits are, except for those of the Russian Federation, the largest in Europe. The Netherlands is the third largest producer following Norway and UK. The North Sea area is fairly mature field, characterised by relatively small fields in shallow but sometimes rough sea.

The Netherlands has embraced a courageous vision: by 2050, there will be a sustainable, reliable and affordable energy system in which CO2 emissions have been halved and 40% of electricity comes from sustainable sources. By 2020, the aim is to have improved energy efficiency by 20%. Innovation and public-private partnerships are key to this approach: the government, private sector and academia co-operate on green materials, built environment, sustainable mobility, chain efficiency, sustainable electricity, new gas and greenhouses as a source of energy.

The renewable energy sector is expanding spectacularly worldwide. Annual growth prior to the economic crisis was as high as 30 per cent. The sustainable energy sector is recovering rapidly after a slight decline in 2009. The sector is also being given a substantial boost in the Netherlands and in Europe as a whole, in line with the goal of increasing sustainable energy use by 20 per cent in 2020.

Renewable energy production for domestic use in the Netherlands was 3.8 per cent of total energy consumption in 2009. The most important renewable energy sources are bio energy and wind energy. Together these account for more than 96 per cent of domestic renewable energy production. The production of equipment for Solar PV is mainly used for export. The total sustainable energy market revenues in the Netherlands are 5.5 billion euros in 2010.

The Dutch have earned a worldwide reputation when it comes to water, whether it's a matter of too much water, too little or not clean enough. Climate change, expanding economies, and urbanisation are putting the world's delta populations at risk. Dutch expertise is at hand, however, in hydraulic engineering, flood control and protection, foundation technology and infrastructure. The Dutch are renowned for their ability to design and build storm surge barriers and levees, reclaim land through high-tech dredging and engineer entire coastal areas and harbours. At the same time, billions of people lack access to clean water and sanitary facilities. The Dutch supply, collect, clean and re-use water from an integrated perspective on sustainable economic development. Dutch companies are recognised specialists in the treatment of industrial waste water and several consultancies are globally respected for their water treatment expertise.

Products, services and economic activities

The Netherlands has a computer-savvy culture with very high rates of computer/broadband penetration and mobile telephony use. The country's IT infrastructure is second-to-none, with specialised networks powering global R&D efforts. This ecosystem has given birth to globally competitive software developers, hardware companies and IT consultancies in areas like business, simulation, mobility, health care and safety. In addition, many companies develop games for all major platforms, the internet and mobile telephones. The Netherlands is a European leader in embedded systems and a world leader in chip manufacturing equipment. Among the ICT subsectors, the telecommunications and internet sector has the major market share at 54 percent while the IT sector’s market share is 46 percent. The breakdown of the IT sector market share is 20 percent for IT hardware, 16 percent for IT software and 10 percent for services (source: Dutch ICT Market Monitor 2010).