AMSTERDAM: Ireland is not alone in eyeing the end of the EU quota regime as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to expand milk production.
Nestled between Germany and Belgium, the Netherlands, a small country of 17 million people, faces out on to the icy waters of the North Sea. It is one of Europe’s biggest milk producers – and one of Ireland’s biggest competitors.
The country produces about 12 billion kilos of milk per year. Like Ireland, it is also heavily focused on exports, selling to more than 150 countries.
The Netherlands also had a head start. A century ago, as Ireland was tentatively inching towards independence, Holland was already exporting into Asia. Today, as in Ireland, the milk business is booming.
Nils den Besten is part of a young generation of Dutch dairy farmers. Young, educated and driven, the 33-year-old runs a 53-hectare farm 30km inland from Rotterdam. His father and grandfather both ran the farm, with Nils then joining the business and buying his neighbour’s herd in 2009.
