In 2021, more than 3,000 enterprises in the Netherlands exported goods to Russia.
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Forty percent were active in wholesale trade and 10 percent in the machinery industry. Nearly 2 thousand enterprises imported goods from Russia. Among these companies, too, wholesale trade accounted for the largest share (nearly 30 percent), followed by the machinery industry (5 percent) and retail trade (4 percent).
Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reports this based on newly released figures.
The number of exporters has been more or less stable around 3 thousand in recent years, while the number of importers increased by nearly 400 in 2021.
Large enterprises - including Dutch subsidiaries of (foreign) corporations - are responsible for the lion’s share of trade with Russia in terms of both exports (nearly 85 percent) and imports (over 90 percent). The importance of large enterprises in trade with Russia is greater than in the trade with the rest of the world, both imports and exports.
The trade and manufacturing sectors account for over three quarters of the export value and over half of the import value. The main export products in manufacturing are medicines, other vehicles and plastics. In trade, these are raw vegetable products (mainly flowers), office equipment and medical instruments and devices.
The main imports in manufacturing are petroleum (products), coal, iron and steel. In trade as well, these are petroleum (products), followed by non-ferrous metals (on Russia’s side mainly copper), cork and wood.
A more detailed breakdown by sector shows that most business activities occur in manufacturing and trade. However, transport and storageas well as agriculture are also major exporters to Russia.
For nearly 5 percent of the companies with imports from or exports to Russia, more than half of their trade value depends on that country.
At product level, the dependence of companies on Russia is greater. Three out of 10 companies exporting to Russia depend on Russian customers for half of their exports in at least one product group. These are mainly wholesale of flowers and plants, other machinery and computers and software.
As for imports, half of the companies that import goods from Russia are dependent on Russian suppliers in at least one product group. This mainly concerns the petroleum industry, wholesale trade in petroleum and coal, wholesale trade in chemical products, and electricity production.
In 2021, companies in the Netherlands exported more than 5 billion euros worth of goods to Russia. Two thirds of this amount was generated by companies located in Noord-Holland, Zuid-Holland and Noord-Brabant.
The most important export products for these provinces are semiconductor components (Noord-Holland), raw vegetable products (mainly flowers) (Zuid-Holland) and medical and pharmaceutical products, except for medicines (mainly immunological products) (Noord-Brabant). Exports were lowest from Flevoland. ■
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