The CSO’s (CBS) calculations differentiate between the export of horses and breeding horses, but not in breeds. Export figures for 2013 list over €136 million for horses and over €36 million for breeding horses. In 2014 export figures for horses amounted to €156 million but the export of breeding horses realised nearly double the amount of the year before: around €66 million. Insiders estimate the annual export between 8,000 and 10,000 horses; The CSO (CBS) released the number of horses for 2014 (5,800) but did not specify the number for breeding horses.
Number four export country
According to the international export database VN Databank Comtrade, an export figure of $211 million puts the Netherlands in fourth position in the 2012 (the most recent data available) ranking list of horse exporting countries, behind the USA ($465 million), Great Britain ($370 million) and Ireland ($235 million), but for the first time ahead of Germany ($160 million). For the Netherlands the top five export countries are: 1. United States;
2. Great Britain; 3. China; 4. Mexico and 5. Sweden. In 2012 the figure for horses exported to the USA amounted to a total of $129 million. In 2007 just under 50 horses went on transport to China, but in 2013 the figure for horses exported to this vast country was in excess of $13 million.
Export Friesian horses on the rise
The Friesian horse contributes considerably to the Dutch figures in the export market of horses and its growth. Germ Aise Bouma of Stud Station and Export Stables Henswoude in Oldeboorn: ‘Right now we sell Friesian horses to around 42 countries across the world and numbers keep going up.’ Jan Folmer of stallion station De Nieuwe Heuvel in Lunteren: ‘Relatively new countries like Australia, China, Brazil, Mexico and Italy have also discovered the Friesian breed now.’
The growth in numbers can partly be ascribed to recovering economical climates. ‘Over the past few years sales have stagnated in the USA, but thanks to a favourable currency exchange rate of the dollar versus the euro, this market is picking up again’, Bouma says. Folmer: ‘For our growth potential we virtually completely rely on the foreign markets, and not only for the export of horses.’ With this Jan Folmer also refers to the export of fresh semen, frozen semen and embryos.
As posted in the July 2015 KFPS Newsletter
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