jsf primefaces datatable filtering issues

I am using primefaces and its datatable. A few columns are dates or currencies. If I try to filter those, there are awkward behaviours. When I start typing the filter works until the first delimiter (dot for date for example, so it only filters for 11. the next character let the table to display no entry).

Is it possible to apply a dateconverter?

Here is my code for now:

<p:column filterBy="#{cou.startDate}"
    headerText="#{text['date']}"
    filterMatchMode="contains" 
    sortBy="#{cou.startDate}" >
        <h:outputText value="#{cou.startDate}" >
             <f:convertDateTime pattern="dd.MM.yyyy" />
        </h:outputText>
</p:column>