As of 1 July 2009, Saudi Arabia has lifted the ban on imports of meat and meat products from the Netherlands which was imposed due to the cow madness disease scare since late 1997. The lifting of the ban took place after a visit by a technical team from the Ministry of Commerce that visited the Dutch slaughterhouses to confirm compliance with the OIE and international standards for food safety. Dutch veal industry exports is rapidly increasing up to 2 billion Euros in 2008 exporting nearly 500 million kilos of top quality veal and veal products which is world wide speciality from Holland.