According to the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics, nearly half of all shoes imported into the Netherlands come from China. The Netherlands imported 157 million pairs of shoes in 2005; 75 million of which were made in China. This equates to a 42% share of the total number of footwear imports and is more than double the 32 million pairs imported from China five years earlier.

Asia as a whole accounted for nearly two-thirds of all shoe imports, whilst the share of EU–made shoes in Dutch imports fell from 42% to 32% in the same period.

On a positive note, Dutch footwear exports increased by 11% to reach 96 million pairs in 2005. Nearly all of the exports went to EU countries, mainly Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom.