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Regional Analysis - Export Markets

Regional analysis of performance of UK food and non-alcoholic exports across EU and non-EU regions.

In this section:

• EU
• Non-EU

EU

The performance of UK food and non-alcoholic drink exports to the EU in the first half of 2011 was up 12.6% on the same period in 2010.

Exports to nine of the ten EU countries that were in decline in 2010 have bounced back to strong growth including France (down 2.9% in H1 2010, up 8.0% H1 2011) the Netherlands (down 16.7% in H1 2010, up 27.8% in 2011) and Poland (down 17.5% in H1 2010, up 83.2% in H1 2011). In many cases the majority of the growth is due to high demand for commodity cereals, grains/seeds (mainly rapeseed), meat and dairy.

The strong growth seen in lightly processed and commodity exports should not overshadow the gains seen in the export of highly processed foods. Ice cream (+40.1%), soft drinks (+14.7%), sweet biscuits (+11.3%), prepared meat (+11.2%), bread (+10.6%) and chocolate (+10.0%) have all registered double digit % increases to EU markets in the first half of 2011 compared to first half 2010.

Exports to the Eurozone were up 10.7%, slightly less than the EU 27 total, which is likely to be due to the £ strengthening against the € slightly and the Eurozone mostly being made up of the more mature EU markets with less growth potential.

Ireland, the UK's largest market in terms of food and non-alcoholic drink products has grown by 7.6% despite the country's recent debt crisis and negative economic growth in the first quarter of 2011.

Source: HMRC Trade Info

Note: Eurozone members marked as bold. Changes in ranking positions are versus the first six months of 2010.

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Non-EU

All non-EU regions apart from Latin America & the Caribbean (-16.6%) have faired well in the first half of 2011 compared to the same period in 2010, with the largest increases seen in:

• Other Western Europe +23.5%, including 24.4% growth to Norway (ice cream +152.0% and prepared meat +49.7%) and 25.8% growth to Switzerland (chocolate +433.5%, frozen beef +395.0%).

• Africa +19.8%, including South Africa up 92.4% (including poultry +705% and breakfast cereals +92.1%) and Egypt +34.9% (including leguminous vegetables +63.7% and chocolate +38.6%).

• North America +19.1%, including USA up 19.4% (driven by an 85.0% increase in the leading fish/seafood category) and Canada up 18.2% (with a 10.5% increase in tea and 41.2% increase in preserved food).

• Asia +18.2%, with China up 52.5% (including very large increases in fish/seafood and meat) and South Korea up 55.7% (very large increase in processed coffee).

Source: HMRC Trade Info

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More information

• Top Export Sectors
• Top Export Markets
• Regional analysis, export markets 2010

Download the full UK Food and Drink Export Performance statistics research report - (first half 2011) - pdf | 112kb