Francois Lenoir / Reuters

A worker adjusts pieces of a U.S. national flag at the Waelkens flag company in Oostrozebeke, Belgium, on Feb. 4.

Francois Lenoir / Reuters

A worker sews stars on a U.S. national flag at the Waelkens flag company in Oostrozebeke, Belgium, on Feb. 4.

By Teddy Nykiel, Reuters

Published at 3:00 p.m. ET: When President Barack Obama was sworn in for his second term on January 21, it's a decent bet that one of the flags fluttering behind him on the U.S. Capitol was made in Belgium.

The Waelkens flag company, based in the small town of Oostrozebeke in Flanders, supplies around 2,000 flags a year to the United States, with clients including the Pentagon and other U.S. government departments as well as the United Nations.

But it's not just the far side of the Atlantic where the company is gaining ground - it also makes flags for NATO, national militaries, the European Union and just about every country in the world, from China to Nigeria.

"We have a lot of know-how about how we have to make flags and a big tradition of embroidery," said Benedikt Waelkens, who runs the company with his brother, David. "There aren't a lot of people in the world who can and are making handmade flags."

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Francois Lenoir / Reuters

A worker rolls out blue fabric at the Waelkens flag company in Oostrozebeke, Belgium, on Feb. 4.