Representatives from around 60 Northern Ireland exporters met their Dutch counterparts at the 11th annual trade dinner organised by the Northern Ireland-Netherlands (NI-NL) Trade and Export Society (www.ni-nl.org) in Amsterdam at the end of last month.

NI-NL founder Steve Murnaghan said that, given the “flexible nature of family-run companies” in the province, the low labour costs and the current value of sterling, “there has never been a better time to do business with Northern Ireland”.

Invest Northern Ireland’s director of trade, Alison Gowdy, said that Northern Ireland increased its manufacturing exports in 2016 by 6% to £7.41 billion and that European markets account for 55% of the province’s total export sales.

She told guests: “The Netherlands remains a strategic partner for Northern Ireland businesses, large and small and across many sectors. The tremendously successful Going Dutch export programme, which we run in conjunction with the Northern Ireland Trade Consultants group, continues to deliver sustainable partnerships business for exporters.”

More than 100 companies have used Going Dutch to take their first steps in exporting, and many of them were at the dinner.

Gerard Wilson, sales director of Antrim-based SAM (a leading manufacturer of MDF mouldings), said: “The Going Dutch programme was a fantastic tool for our business; it was our first step to becoming the committed exporter we are today.”

"Not only did we benefit from Invest NI’s expertise in receiving a detailed analysis of the market sector and meetings with all the key players, but it also gave us the confidence to invite European partners to our site and to roll out our new products globally — not only in Europe, but also in the USA, Australia and South Africa.”