5 inhabitants, The Netherlands is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. But there is still place for a huge amount of livestock: over 37 million chickens, 14 million pigs, 4.5 million cows and over 1.5 million sheep. .
The milk business has always been a highly developed industry within the agriculture in The Netherlands. The rules of the EU that limited the production of milk have not changed that. The production per cow has increased, resulting in the same milk production with fewer cows. After the strong growth in the 80's, the size of the intensive cattle breading did not increase. An attribute of the intensive cattle breading is that the animals are kept in stables and on farms with few or no ground. This especially refers to the production of meat and eggs. The intensive cattle breading contributes a lot to the Dutch export.
A disadvantage of this development is that there is too much manure. Too much farmers do not have enough land to inject it in, without exceeding the environmental norms. Some solutions for this problem are: use of better fodder, ship the manure to another piece of land, work it up or export it.
Within the cattle-breading industry, there has been a relatively strong increase in not intensive cattle breading systems. This increase is the result of the changing attitude of the consumers. More and more consumers do not only demand a high quality of the products, they also want a high quality life for the animals. .
This report disguises the different environmental factors that are important for a company that wants to enter the Dutch cattle breading market. In separate chapters, there will be written about the competition, the economic, technical, geographical, social, demographical, ecological and the political environment. .
2. The competitive environment.
The Netherlands is a member of the European union. This means that any other company or country of the European union can sell its livestock (products) in The Netherlands.