Record breaking start for UK food and drink exports

UK food and drink exports continued to break all records in the first half of 2007, according to latest figures from market development network Food from Britain. Demand for British produce has never been greater and Food from Britain is confident this figure will reach a record breaking £11 billion for the year, despite the setbacks caused by Foot and Mouth Disease.

This prediction represents a five per cent increase on last year’s annual figures and indicates the strength of the UK’s food and drink export market. Exports reached £5.2 billion at this year’s half-year mark, compared with £4.2 billion in the same period in 2006.

“Historically Britain’s red meat exports have been very strong and contributed significantly to the overall export figures,” said Chris Brockman, Research and Consultancy Manager at Food from Britain. “This meant that when BSE struck over a decade ago, and then Foot and Mouth Disease came along at the beginning of the century, it spelt real problems for UK food and drink export performance overall. Since then the UK has strengthened all of its food and drink export offerings and is not as reliant on beef, for example.”

Chris continues: “While Foot and Mouth Disease will have a significant detrimental effect on our animal-based exports in the second half of 2007, we still predict overall export figures at year-end will reflect the strength and diversity of the market and will hit the £11 billion milestone.”Europe continues to be home to the majority of the UK’s exports, accounting for 68% of the total food and drink exported, and the newer EU member states, including Estonia (+ 145%), Slovakia (+127%) and Hungary (+39%), are showing an increasing interest in British food and drink. Ireland remains the UK’s number one export market, up 14% year-on-year, accounting for £1,072 million.

In non-EU markets, the strongest performances came from our other European neighbours, Switzerland, Norway and Turkey, which together contributed £116.9 million to UK exports. Other successes were exports to Dubai (+29%), Singapore (+85%), Russia (+4%) and South Africa (+19%), which all showed positive growth.

The UK maintains a strong position among the range of importing countries within all its key markets – as well as being the largest supply country to Ireland for example, the UK is the 4th largest global supplier of food and drink to Spain, the 6th largest to France and Holland, and 7th largest to Belgium and Denmark.

Reversing a recent trend, UK food and drink exports are now growing faster than imports (+9% versus +1% respectively for the first half of 2007), reducing the overall food and drink trade gap.

Chris Brockman said: “The UK export market has proved itself to be extremely robust and with all the logistics, opportunities and expertise in place, we are confident that this upward trend is set to continue.”

-ends-

Notes to editor
Food from Britain (FFB), the market development network for British food and drink companies which works in over 30 markets, helps build UK and international business for food and drinks manufacturers.  FFB, funded by industry and government, works annually with 700 UK food and drink producers. For further information visit www.foodfrombritain.com.

Top 10 food and drink markets – January to June 2007 (£m)

Country	Jan to June ‘06	Jan to June ‘07	% Change ‘07 vs ‘06
Ireland	939.6	1,072.1	14%
France	618.4	634.3	3%
USA	407.5	399.2	-2%
Germany	284.3	350.6	23%
Spain	283.5	349.9	23%
Netherlands	244.9	266.1	9%
Italy	173.3	199.3	15%
Belg/Lux	156.6	155.9	0%
Denmark	74.9	94.3	26%
Singapore	48.9	90.5	85%

 

05 November 2007