In addition to football players and dressage horses the Netherlands boosts yet another precious live export product: carrier pigeons.

Pigeon auction website PIPA (Pigeon Paradise) reports on its site that Chinese shipping magnet Hu Zhen Yu has paid 250,400 euros for a female Dutch pigeon at an auction in Belgium.

The bird’s owner was pigeon breeder Pieter Veenstra from the Frisian village of Drachtstercompagnie. The 245 pigeons Veenstra put up for auction yielded close to 1.9 million euros; according to PIPA another world record.

(gsh)

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