Exports of Dutch goods from the Netherlands to Britain fell 1% last year to just over €20bn, but rose 4% to the EU as a whole, according to new figures from the national statistics agency CBS.

It is the second year in a row that Dutch exports to Britain have fallen. In 2016 they actually rose 7%.

Britain accounts for an increasingly small share of Dutch exports, having gone down from 10% of the total at the turn of the century to 7.3% now. Nevertheless, the UK still remains third on the Dutch export list, behind Germany and Belgium.

Oil and gas products account for the biggest share of Dutch exports to Britain, followed by fruit and vegetables, meat, flowers and plants, and medicine.