Egg exports have come to a standstill

The Dutch Ministry of Agriculture last Friday ordered a ban, which will be reviewed on Monday, on exports of live chickens and eggs as well as a ban on movements within the country.

The Netherlands is one of the biggest producers of eggs and poultry in the world, and in many European countries coloured or carefully painted eggs are a central part of the Easter festivities.

But 10% of the country's 100 million chickens have been culled in an effort to stop the spread of the disease, costing the sector 150m euros so far.

Poultry meat is still being exported, but that will soon come to an end because there is no longer any supply coming in from the farms.

Slaughterhouses have already sent some of their workers home as there is no more poultry coming in.

Meanwhile, egg exports have come to a complete standstill.

"Complete disaster"

Dutch poultry and egg exports were valued at 1.8bn euros in 2001, according to the country's Product Boards for Livestock, Meat and Eggs (PVE).

"This is a complete disaster. It is not a question of how many businesses and farms will go down, but how many will be left standing once this is all over", a spokesman for the PVE told BBC News Online

Seventy per cent of Holland's annual production of eggs is exported, mainly to Germany, whereas the UK is Holland's most important export market for poultry meat.

Last year, some 97 million kilos of poultry meat was exported to the UK, representing a value of 265m euros.

"This is a crisis. We are one of the main players in Europe, but now that the sector has come to a standstill, competitors such as Spain, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland are already stepping in," said a spokesman for the Dutch Poultry Organisation NOP.

Avian influenza

Bird flu, or avian influenza, broke out in the Netherlands in late February.

The disease, harmless for humans, can destroy stocks of birds.

So far, some 800 farms in the eastern Dutch province of Gelderland have seen their animals culled.

But the Dutch Ministry called out the army to enforce a complete 72-hour standstill for the sector last Friday, after the virus seemed to have spread to other regions, one in the southeastern province of Limburg, and one in the southern province of North Brabant.

The disease outbreak, the first-ever of avian influenza in the Netherlands, is thought to be caused by contact between wild ducks and farm chickens.