THE Dutch are world trading experts, no argument.
The second largest agricultural exporter after the United States, despite a meagre 41.5 square kilometre land mass - compared to Australia’s 7.6 million - the Dutch shipped out A$148b of product last year.
Now they are targeting both the high-end affluent and fast-growing middle income earning Chinese beef consumer, a market Australian red meat has its eye firmly on.
What’s more, Dutch veal is mirroring our prized beef credentials - eating quality, traceback and food safety.
Dutch slaughterhouse Ekro, a subsidiary of the family-owned VanDrie Group, last week received approval to export boneless veal, both fresh and frozen, to China.
Henny Swinkels, Director of Corporate Affairs, told Fairfax Media: “In the big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou the traditional French and Italian cuisines are popular. Veal is a product that perfectly fits in this tradition.
“The Chinese middle class is eating more and more high quality meat products. Quality, food safety and assurance are important items for them. We can meet these requirements.”
The Dutch tracing system has been active since the end of the 1990s and Ekro describes it as “unique in the world and appreciated by international clients and by the authorities worldwide.”
That’s a very familiar catch-cry.
Experienced agribusiness leader David Crombie - producer and former National Farmers Federation and Meat and Livestock Australia boss - said it was clear “everyone in the global beef market was realising these are the requirements if you want to participate in the more lucrative markets.”
The Dutch weren’t the only ones making the same claims, he said.
However, Australia was very much at the forefront of having the independently-verifiable systems in place to back up the claims.
“Every Australian farm is identified, and every animal and every movement able to be identified and that is a very powerful system,” Mr Crombie said.
“Of course, what the Dutch have that we don’t is government support which allows them to price very competitively - effectively it gives them a jump-start.”
Ekro says it is too difficult just yet to give a clear estimation on how much veal it will send to China but it intends to “work hard on our presence and brand.”
The protocol demands that the livestock is born, bred and slaughtered in the Netherlands. There are no restrictions concerning breed.
Most of the calves will probably be Holstein.
The Dutch export 95 per cent of their veal production and Ekro sends product to more than 60 countries.
“The Chinese protocol prohibits at this moment to export bone-in veal, offal and organs,” Mr Swinkels said.
“We see also a great potential for these products. We hope that in the coming years the protocol will be adjusted to make export of aforementioned products available.”