News of fmd confirmed in the Netherlands on Wednesday overshadowed the announcement of dramatic consolidation in the Dutch meat industry. The takeover of Meat-point's fresh meat activities by Dumeco creates a processing giant with turnover of more than £1bn. The transaction involving acquisition of Meatpoint's SturkoMeat operation will take the Dumeco weekly pig kill to nearly 190,000 head. This is equivalent to almost 90% of the UK national pig slaughter rate before foot and mouth hit. As Dumeco executive director Antoon van den Berg pointed out, the deal is "in line with the international trend towards consolidation in the meat sector". Like the Danes, the Dutch have become acutely conscious of the potential threat from huge US and Canadian pigmeat processors in the international market. Their response has been to try to attain similar scale while keeping the processing and marketing activities under producer control. {{M/E MEAT }}