Agri-exports from the Netherlands to Cuba back at pre-COVID levels

Post-COVID export recovery

Agricultural exports from the Netherlands to Cuba grew 26% in value and reached 77.8 million euro in 2022. With this growth, the Dutch agricultural exports to Cuba effectively completed their post-COVID recovery and exceeded their 2019 pre-COVID value of 77.7 million euro. Dutch agricultural exports also exceeded Dutch non-agricultural exports to Cuba for the first time in years.

Beer, chicken and dairy

With 43.7 million euros, an 88% rise compared to 2021, beverages (90% of them beer) made up more than half the value of these agricultural exports. Chicken meat (20.7 million) has grown into the Netherlands’ second most important agricultural export product to Cuba, since Cuba granted market access to chicken meat from the Netherlands in 2019. Chicken meat now makes up more than a quarter of the value of Dutch agricultural exports to Cuba. Dairy products (8.1 million) complete the top three. Seed potato exports show a considerable drop in the statistics (from 6.4 to 1.4 million euro), but this is likely due to administrative reasons, and not to a real reduction in exports.

Lobster and rum

Cuban agricultural exports to the Netherlands, on the other hand, dropped to 3,1 million euro, the lowest level of the last years, and 49% less than in 2021. Almost 80% of these Cuba’s agricultural exports to the Netherlands consisted of two products: lobster and rum.