The Dutch Food Safety Authority (NVWA) and the Ministry of Economic Affairs are not able to keep up with the growth in exports, according to several industry organisations, including the GroentenFruit Huis. And that is going to cause problems. Vegetables, flowers, fruits and bulbs are at risk of being destroyed if something does not happen soon. The agricultural sector is becoming more dependent on export outside of the EU, including to countries in Asia and South and Central America.
Gert Mulder: “Not enough manpower”
The role of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the NVWA is to create clear agreements with these kinds of countries. According to several industry organisations the problem is mostly lack of manpower. Gert Mulder from the GroentenFruit Huis, the platform for fresh produce companies: “After the Russian boycott, the fruit and vegetable sector received extra support to find and open new markets. Extra capacity is needed for that, and you can see certain files come to a standstill because the capacity is not there.”
Important sector
The agricultural sector exported over 82 billion Euro last year. That is almost 20 per cent of our total export. In 2014 we shipped about 81 billion worth of agricultural products. Looking at the fresh produce sector, 80 per cent of what is produced in the Netherlands is exported. The faltering export quickly caused problems according to Mulder: “The fresh produce sector employs 130,000 people. If we lose that position, it will definitely backfire on the Dutch economy.”
Bulbs
This problem can also be seen with, for example, bulbs. By now, over 60 per cent of these are going to non-EU countries, explains chairperson Henk Westerhof of industry organisation Anthos. “That means we are becoming more dependent on countries such as China, South Korea, Japan and countries in South and Central America. And all those countries have different requirements and inspections concerning the products.” The government appears not to notice when entrepreneurs need help improving export opportunities, according to Jaco Geurt, CDA parliamentarian. He speaks of a serious situation. “The government is letting companies help fund this, and customer-friendliness is decreasing. I think it is too absurd for words, because it also jeopardises employment. If we no longer export products, worse products enter the Netherlands, so that would be two wrongs.”
Costs of rejection
The risk is mostly in the rejection of shipments abroad. And those costs are running high, Henk Westerhof figures: “When a container is rejected and destroyed it can mean a loss of 75,000 to 100,000 Euro for some products.”
Exact figures for destroyed shipments are missing. But we hear from several industries that containers are being held wherever almost daily. The plea is now to have more manpower available. Westerhof: “Because every country plays by their own rules, you have to make agreements with every market. That should happen at governmental level, and enough manpower has to be available for that.”