Earnings from machinery and equipment exports doubled since 2015

After machinery, natural gas was the second most important export product in 2022, with export earnings of 12.0 billion euros. Due to very high gas prices in 2022, earnings from natural gas produced in the Netherlands were higher than they were in 2021 and in 2015, even though the actual volume of gas exported in 2022 was lower. Metal and metal products (8.1 billion euros in 2022) were the next largest export category, followed by petroleum products at 8.0 billion euros (and just as in the case of natural gas, earnings from petroleum products were much higher than in 2021 due to elevated energy prices). Earnings from the export of organic chemicals, dairy and eggs, high-performance plastics, horticultural products, meat and pharmaceuticals each amounted to between 5 and 6 billion euros.

These figures only include earnings from goods produced in the Netherlands. Earnings from re-exports are not included. The Netherlands earns relatively little per euro on re-exported goods. The Netherlands’ total earnings from the export of goods produced in the Netherlands were 165.3 billion euros in 2022, representing 17.2 percent of GDP.

Earnings from agricultural exports stand at over 44 billion euros

Export margins have only increased for machinery and equipment since 2015

The profitability of each export commodity group can be found by dividing export earnings by the gross export value for that group. This is known as the export margin. For machinery and equipment the average export margin was 62 cents, and for manufactured goods, such as metal products and plastic products, an average of 59 cents was earned for every euro of exports in 2022. Energy-related products have the lowest export margin at 40 cents per euro. This is due to the very limited value added in the production of petroleum products, which involves the minor processing of imported crude petroleum. By contrast, natural gas is very lucrative when it is extracted within the Netherlands, whether onshore or offshore, because virtually no imports are required in order to export it.

The export margins for most commodity groups have been declining since 2015. However, due to a sharp increase in exports of profitable types of machinery and equipment, export margins in that category have risen somewhat.