Belgium is a small country in Europe. Let’s just look at the facts: it’s barely 30,528 km² and has 11,584,008 inhabitants. Neighbouring Germany is almost 12 times larger. Yet Belgium is a big player in the European meat industry with a production of 238,137 tons of beef. The secret ingredient? The love for a good product. Thanks to their specialisation, their tailor-made service and their pioneering work in food safety, meat suppliers have transformed their small scale into significant benefits.
Producer, processor and supplier: worldwide, every professional is considered a true specialist.
1. Specialisation
Belgium produces more meat than it consumes. A deliberate choice. A strong network of small to medium-sized enterprises, often family businesses, has specialised in beef exports over several generations.
The largest market is located in the neighbouring country, the Netherlands, followed by other European countries like France, Germany and Italy. Belgian meat owes its unique position to the people who produce it. Producer, processor and supplier: worldwide, every professional is considered a true specialist.
2. Tailor-made services
Each of them is an expert who knows their customers and who vouches for a tailor-made service—although those customers live thousands of kilometres away, in every corner of the world.
3. Pioneer in food safety
Belgium is a pioneer in the field of food safety. From animal feed to point of sale, the strictest standards for control and traceability are in place everywhere.
What makes Belgium unique? Unlike in many other countries, the supervision of the production and sale of food is in the hands of a single umbrella supervision organisation: the federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (FASFC). The Agency is iso 9001 certified and accredited for ISO 17025 and ISO 17020. The FASFC has far-reaching authority across the entire Belgian food chain. This unique structure, from feed to food, guarantees traceability across all levels and an exceptionally high level of food safety for the end-user.
The result: facts & figures of 2019
