Dutch companies exported more than €10 bn of goods to Russia in 2021, according to latest figures from the statistics agency CBS.

Around 3,000 firms, mostly large businesses and international companies with more than 250 employees, recorded exports last year, while 2,000 imported items from Russia.

The government’s business advisory service RVO said its sanctions desk had fielded large numbers of calls from companies about the impact of sanctions on their trade.

‘Mostly we get questions from companies about whether they can still export their products,’ Rinske van den Brink of the RVO told NOS.

The largest group of exporters were wholesalers and traders, followed by machinery, food, medicines and flowers. Around 5% of companies reported that more than half the value of their business derived from Russian trade.

The main import products were minerals including oil, coal, steel and iron.

Van den Brink said companies were also concerned about payments now that Russian banks have been shut out of the Swift transaction system.

‘Exporting to Russia is becoming more difficult, partly because payments are being frozen and businesses aren’t receiving money. The companies that are dependent on that are getting hit.’