Dutch Business Delegation Visits Erbil

September 10, 2025

Nine Dutch companies met with Kurdish officials and business leaders in Erbil on Monday to discuss expanding trade and investment between the Netherlands and the Kurdistan Region and were hosted at a business event organized by the Netherland’s Consulate General in Erbil.

“Today we brought in a group of Dutch companies, a very diverse group of companies,” the Dutch Consul General in Erbil Adriaan IJsselstein told Kurdistan Chronicle. “We want to encourage them to invest in Kurdistan and, at the same time, bring in a lot of Kurdish companies. I think that’s the best form of cooperation, to bring these companies together and see what opportunities there are.”

Consul General IJsselstein said that there is already strong cooperation between Dutch and Kurdish companies in the agricultural sector. “We see a lot of opportunities to do more and to widen that cooperation in water management and the dairy sector, and also in other areas.”

Safeen Dizayee, Head of the Department of Foreign Relations of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), underlined at the event that “economical development has been the priority of our government,” including diversification and the development of the agricultural sector.

He added that the Kurdistan Region has traditionally been an agrarian society, but due to political turmoil and conflict over the past decades, that potential has been forgotten. “It is important to revitalize that,” he explained.

Dizayee thanked the Netherlands for being instrumental in assisting the Kurdistan Region’s agricultural sector, which is still partly being developed using classical methods. “It is good that you are sharing the technical know-how. Sharing is good in this day and age,” Dizayee concluded.

Jenze Kingma, who owns a hotel business in the north of the Netherlands and is also the co-owner of several dairy companies, told Kurdistan Chronicle that “together with other business owners from the Netherlands, what we’re trying to do is bring a lot of knowledge, and also products from our region to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq because we know that knowledge is very needed in this region.

“I’m a food expert, and I bring my expertise over to this region, so I can help farmers with their dairy, with their meat, with their plants, but also when they want to use the DNA from the cows that we have in the Netherlands, so that they can use it to make better products here.”

Maarten Kommers, Team Lead West Africa and Senior Project Manager at Delphy, an international crop consultancy company, said his company looks to explore opportunities in the farming business. “We are looking for clients that are looking for consultancy support, training, and advisory services in the area of vegetables and greenhouses.

“We have been working in the Kurdistan Region for several years, mainly on project-based initiatives such as the Iraq Agricultural Development Program. We have had a few projects over the last several years, and we see agriculture here as a rapidly growing market. With population growth there is demand for healthy, high-quality food. We see there is a lot of land with strong potential for cultivation that is not yet fully developed, so we see a lot of opportunities.”

Peter de Graaf, Creative Director of Phil and Flo Creative Studio, told Kurdistan Chronicle that he joined the delegation “to explore opportunities for us to work in the region and, of course, to see if companies are interested in collaborating with us.”

“I first came here about 12 years ago, and so much has changed since then. I really like the way the Kurds work and of course how the entire Kurdistan Region is developing. Our company specializes in 3D animation, visualization, branding, and marketing, and we do that for a lot of big companies in Europe, and we want to see if we can also use our knowledge to get branding [here].

“We also want to see how we can get western people here into Kurdistan to learn more about the culture and also about the country.

“A lot of people already work here in branding and marketing and that’s also a big opportunity for us, to see if they can work for us remotely with an office here in Erbil,” he added.

Dutch Consul General IJsselstein also added that another Dutch trade delegation will visit the Kurdistan Region in November. Previously, on June 9-13, several multi-million euro deals were signed between Dutch and Kurdish companies during the Kurdistan-Netherlands Economic Forum, and a Kurdish delegation also participated in the world’s largest international agriculture fair.

“We will try to keep that momentum coming, and we want to keep Dutch companies coming,” Dutch Consul General IJsselstein concluded.

Earlier this month, KRG Prime Minister Barzani expressed gratitude to the Netherlands’ mission for supporting the KRG’s reform agenda, particularly in advancing economic diversification and developing the agricultural sector.