Links between Wales and the Netherlands

Wales and the Netherlands enjoy strong trade links. Wales exports around £1bn worth of goods to The Netherlands. Much of this number is made up of food and drink, with meat and dairy products making up about half of the total.

In return, Wales imports goods worth roughly £1.4bn, including large amounts of meat, fruit and vegetables.

On a more personal scale, a number of Dutch people have settled and started businesses in Wales. Kees Huysmans visited Tregroes in the Teifi Valley 40 years ago and loved the place so much he never went home. He learned to speak Welsh and founded Tregroes Waffles, the UK's only traditional Dutch stroopwaffel bakery. The company is now owned by its employees and supplies its products to retailers like M&S, Waitrose and Asda.

Founded in 1982, Caws Teifi is another Welsh company with Dutch roots. This artisan cheesemaker was set up by the Savage-Onstwedder family, who adapted a 500-year-old Gouda recipe to make their unique raw milk cheese. The family has also expanded into distilling – producing organic gin, rum and whisky at their Dà Mhìle distillery.

There’s plenty of tourist travel between Wales and the Netherlands. There are direct flights between Cardiff and Schiphol in Amsterdam – in fact this is the most popular route to leave from the Welsh capital’s airport.

Highlighting the depths of the travel links between the nations, the very first overseas TV advert produced by the Wales Tourist Board (now Visit Wales) was created for the Belgian and Dutch market in 2002. In the most recent years for which figures are available, visitors from the Netherlands were the fifth most numerous, accounting for six percent of international travel to Wales.

There are strong links between the Dutch town of ‘s-Hertogenbosch (also knowns as Den Bosch) that stretch back to the Second World War. In 1944, forces of 53rd Welsh Infantry Division liberated the town from German occupation.

The town is home to a memorial to the Welsh soldiers who fought to recapture the town and bears the names of the 146 Welshmen who died in the struggle. There’s also a Welsh cross in the cathedral and a Welsh Room in the town hall. The liberation is regularly commemorated by both Wales and the Netherlands. An annual dinner takes place in Pontypridd which is attended by officials from Den Bosch.

In 2019, 26 Den Bosch residents took part in a 400-mile bike ride to Cardiff, stopping off at a number of Welsh towns along the way. In 2024, a group of Welsh riders made the trip in the opposite direction. They travelled from Pontypridd to the Dutch town for a commemoration that saw Deputy First Minister Huw Irranca-Davies attend a remembrance service and lay a wreath at the memorial.

Wales and the Netherlands have met on the field in a number of sports. Football is a popular game in both countries and the men's national teams have come up against each other during a variety of tournaments and qualifying campaigns. There’s a clear winner on the field, with Netherlands emerging victorious in all 10 of their meetings.

Wales's women's football team are also on the hunt for their first win against the Netherlands. The two sides meet at the 2025 UEFA European Women's Championships in Switzerland, with the Netherlands having emerged victorious in their four previous encounters.

Wales have had a little more success with the oval ball. In 2024, the Welsh women’s rugby league team beat Netherland Dames to secure a place at the 2026 Rugby League World Cup, the first time they have qualified for the competition.

Welsh universities welcome students from the Netherlands. Both Swansea University and the University of South Wales have a small but growing number of Dutch students at their campuses.

Wales is also a study destination for Dutch royalty. In 2023, Princess Alexia of the Netherlands was awarded her International Baccalaureate qualification after studying for two years UWC Atlantic College in Llantwit Major. The princess wasn’t the first member of the Dutch royal family to study in Wales – she followed in the footsteps of her father King Willem-Alexander who attended Atlantic College in the 1980s.