A row has been brewing in Holland’s Jewish community over claims that the country’s only abattoir faces closure.

Representatives of the Slagerij Marcus slaughterhouse claim a deal reached earlier this month between the Dutch government and leaders of the Jewish and Muslim communities requires the company to stop exporting its meat, which, they say, will result in the firm going bust.

A spokesman for the slaughterhouse, Herman Loonstein, told JTA that foreign exports account for about 40 per cent of the company’s income, and so its operations would become “financially untenable” under the new guidelines.

The agreement was an extension of an earlier deal signed between government officials and faith leaders in 2012. But the clause on exports was added in July, Mr Loonstein said.

“The effectuation of the ban on export will mean the end of the last kosher slaughterhouse in the Netherlands,” he wrote in a letter to Jewish leaders.

However, the claim was refuted by Ruben Vis, director general of NIK, Holland’s equivalent of the Board of Deputies. He told the JC: “The concern about the closure of Marcus as Dutch kosher butcher is unfounded. Against developments in other European countries, religious Jewish slaughter is secured in the Netherlands. The agreement ensures that in the Netherlands kosher slaughtering can continue, while in Belgium, for example, a ban has been passed in parliament.

“Marcus may continue to do business as it has always done. An export ban is not under consideration and would violate EU rules. Marcus may also continue to export if it is necessary to supply the Dutch market in a profitable way. This has been agreed explicitly in the negotiation of the agreement.”

Esther Voet, editor-in-chief of the Dutch Jewish weekly, Nieuw Israelietisch Weekblad, told the JC that the situation was “complicated” and “nobody knows yet how big the consequences really are”. However, she added: “The Marcus tradition among Dutch Jewry is incredible.”

According to Ms Voet, pickled beef produced by Marcus is used in a sandwich that has long been part of the Dutch Jewish tradition.

“People are worried about our wonderful traditional meat sandwiches. Some people are saying that they could import it from France but it’s a different product that is not half as good as Marcus’s meat.”