Most Dutch confectionery does not export well. The cultural specificity of the dominant categories — drop in particular, but also hagelslag, the Sinterklaas range, and several smaller categories — limits foreign demand to the Dutch and South African diaspora and to the small set of consumers who have acquired a taste for the products through travel or family connection. The result is a sparse but durable network of specialist retailers serving these communities, supplemented by a handful of online importers and a small set of supermarket chains in major immigrant-heavy markets.
This entry serves as a practical reference for the consumer abroad who wants to obtain genuine Dutch products outside the Netherlands. It treats the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and (more briefly) Germany, France, and the Nordic countries; covers the principal online importers; addresses the customs and shipping considerations for direct mail-order from the Netherlands; and provides a substitution map for the products that cannot be reliably obtained outside the Netherlands at all.
United Kingdom
The UK has a substantial Dutch and South African expatriate community concentrated in London, Cambridge, and several smaller cities, and the corresponding diaspora retail network is the most developed in the English-speaking world. The principal physical retailers are:
- The Dutch Shop — based in London, with a substantial range of branded Dutch products including the principal Venco, Klene, De Ruijter, and Red Band lines. Mail order to the rest of the UK is reliable and the stock is generally good.
- Anglo-Continental Foods — based in Birmingham, oriented toward the Dutch and German communities, with particular strength in Sinterklaas seasonal ranges.
- Stroopwafels.co.uk — single-product specialist for stroopwafels and related Dutch sweet products, with online distribution across the UK.
In addition to the specialist diaspora retailers, several UK supermarket chains carry a small range of Dutch confectionery: Waitrose stocks Lotus Biscoff and Daelmans stroopwafels nationally; Tesco and Sainsbury's stock similar ranges in their larger stores; and the World Foods aisles of major supermarkets typically carry a small selection of branded Dutch licorice. The supermarket selection is much narrower than the specialist trade and is concentrated on the products that have crossed cultural boundaries (stroopwafels, Biscoff) rather than on the more culturally specific Dutch ranges.
United States
The US has a meaningful Dutch and Dutch-American community concentrated in Michigan (particularly the Holland and Grand Rapids areas), the Hudson Valley of New York, and several smaller communities in California, Iowa, and Washington. The principal physical retailers serving the diaspora are:
- Vander Veen's The Dutch Store — based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with the largest range of branded Dutch products in the US. Mail order is well-established.
- Holland American Imports — based in Holland, Michigan, with broad coverage of Dutch products and a particular emphasis on the Sinterklaas-season trade.
- Tulip Time Imports — based in Iowa, serving the Pella Dutch community and surrounding region.
- De Wafelbakkers — California-based importer with a national online distribution.
Among the supermarket chains, Trader Joe's carries Lotus Biscoff and stroopwafels nationally; Whole Foods carries a similar range; Wegmans (in the northeast) carries an unusually broad European confectionery range that includes some Dutch products. The "European" or "international" aisles of larger Kroger, Publix, and Safeway stores will sometimes carry a modest Dutch range, particularly during the Sinterklaas season. Outside the diaspora-concentration areas, the supermarket presence is essentially limited to the globalised products (stroopwafels, Biscoff) that have transcended the diaspora trade.
Canada and Australia
Canada has a substantial Dutch community, concentrated principally in southern Ontario (the Brampton, Burlington, and Welland areas) and in parts of British Columbia. The principal retailers serving the Dutch-Canadian community are:
- Hollandia Bakery — Mississauga, Ontario, with a substantial Dutch product range alongside its bakery.
- The Dutch Mill — Welland, Ontario, with mail-order distribution across Canada.
- Dutch Country Foods — British Columbia, serving the western Canadian community.
Australia's Dutch community is somewhat smaller and more dispersed, but is concentrated in Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide. The principal retailers are:
- Dutch Australian Imports — Melbourne, with national mail-order.
- De Molen — Sydney, with a substantial Dutch product range.
- The Dutch Pantry — Adelaide, serving the South Australian community.
The Canadian and Australian supermarket trade is similar to the US in carrying the globalised products (stroopwafels, Biscoff) but generally not the wider Dutch range. The diaspora retailers fill this gap and are the principal source for genuine Dutch licorice and related products outside the Netherlands.
Online importers
For consumers without access to a local diaspora retailer, the principal online options are:
- Dutch Snoepwinkel (snoepwinkel.com) — Netherlands-based, ships internationally, broad range across all Dutch confectionery categories.
- Old Dutch Foods (olddutchfoods.com) — US-based importer with a substantial range and reliable shipping within North America.
- Vermont Brownie Company — secondary US importer with a smaller but well-curated range.
- Amazon — varies dramatically by market and time, but the major Dutch brands (Venco, Klene, De Ruijter) appear regularly through third-party sellers.
Direct mail-order from Dutch retailers (Albert Heijn international shipping, Bol.com, several specialist online drop shops) is also possible for many products but is generally more expensive on a per-unit basis than going through a local importer. The principal advantage of direct mail-order is range: a Dutch online retailer will carry the full national assortment, whereas the diaspora and online importers necessarily carry a narrower selection.
Customs and shipping considerations
For consumers shipping Dutch confectionery directly to themselves from the Netherlands, several practical considerations apply. None of the products discussed in this encyclopedia is restricted under standard customs regulations in the major markets (UK, US, Canada, Australia, EU), and personal-import quantities for confectionery are essentially unlimited for non-commercial use. The principal practical concerns are:
- Heat damage — chocolate-containing products (chocoladeletters, Droste pastilles, hagelslag, pralines) suffer significantly in transit during summer months and are best ordered for delivery in the cooler half of the year.
- Crushing — wafer-style products (stroopwafels) and elaborate figural products (marsepein figures, schuimpjes dragonflies) are vulnerable to compression during transit and benefit from over-packaging.
- Shelf-life — most products tolerate transit times of 1–3 weeks without quality concern, but the very short-shelf-life products (notably the cuberdon and the very fresh borstplaat) cannot be reliably exported by any conventional shipping route.
- Customs duties — most importing countries apply a small de minimis threshold below which customs duties are not collected. The thresholds vary (UK £135, US $800, Canada CAD 20, Australia AUD 1000) and are generally above the level of typical personal confectionery imports.
What cannot be exported, and the substitution map
Several Dutch and Belgian confectionery products cannot reliably be obtained outside the country of origin. The principal cases are:
| Product | Reason | Substitution |
|---|---|---|
| Cuberdon | Three-week shelf life, structural fragility | None — must be obtained in Ghent |
| Fresh borstplaat | Hygroscopic; degrades within a week | Make domestically from sugar, milk, flavourings |
| Artisanal taai-taai | Bakery-fresh required for full quality | Industrial taai-taai (lower quality) is exportable |
| Specialist black-stripe drop | Restricted to Dutch specialist channels | Standard dubbelzout (4.5–7.99% NH₄Cl) approximates |
| Babelutte | Coastal-trade specific, very limited export | None reliable; some online importers carry a few |
For the cuberdon in particular, no reliable workaround exists. The structural physics of the candy (a metastable sugar shell with a liquid centre) cannot be solved by packaging or shipping technology, and the few "exportable" cuberdon variants on offer through international channels are essentially different products. A consumer determined to taste a real cuberdon must travel to Ghent — preferably to the Groentenmarkt — and buy them fresh from the carts. There is no other way.
A note on supermarket trade trends
The supermarket presence of Dutch and Belgian confectionery in major export markets has grown substantially over the past two decades, driven principally by the global success of stroopwafels and speculoos. Both products have achieved meaningful supermarket distribution outside the diaspora trade and are now staples of the European-snack section in major UK, US, Canadian, and Australian retailers. The wider Dutch and Belgian confectionery trade has not, on the whole, achieved similar mainstream success, and the diaspora retailers remain the principal source for the more culturally specific products.
This pattern is unlikely to change substantially in the medium term. The cultural barriers that have limited Dutch licorice exports in particular are structural — the salmiak palate does not exist outside northern Europe — and the diaspora trade's role in serving the niche market is unlikely to be displaced by mainstream supermarket distribution. The consumer abroad seeking Dutch products should, accordingly, expect to continue using the diaspora retailers and online importers identified in this entry for the foreseeable future, supplemented by the slowly growing supermarket presence of the more globalised products.