[en] In The Netherlands a surplus of 15 million tons of liquid pig manure is produced yearly on intensive pig breeding farms. The dutch government has set a three-way policy to reduce this excess of manure: 1. conversion of animal fodder into a product with less and better ingestible nutrients; 2. distribution of the surplus to regions with a shortage of animal manure; 3. processing of the remainder of the surplus in large scale processing plants. The first large scale plant for the processing of liquid pig manure was put in operation in 1988 as a demonstration plant at Promest in Helmond. The design capacity of this plant is 100,000 tons of pig manure per year. The plant was initiated by the Manure Steering Committee of the province Noord-Brabant in order to prove at short notice whether large scale manure processing might contribute to the solution of the problem of the manure surplus in The Netherlands. This steering committee is a corporation of the national and provincial government and the agricultural industrial life. (au)