Regional Analysis - Export Markets (2008)

Overall, UK food and non-alcoholic exports have shown positive growth across all EU markets with the exception of Estonia (down 17.3%, due to a 55.0% drop in exports of sugar).

In this section:

EU
Non-EU

EU

Germany was the only other country not to record double digit growth (its gains in 2008 amounting to just 2.8% due to a 59.2% drop in exports of fats and oils).

As previously mentioned, it was the relatively new member states within Central Europe which drove growth overall (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic among some of the more significant markets showing strong gains as consumers in these markets increasingly demand premium/imported food and drinks as their income grows).

UK exports to the 16 members of the Eurozone grew by 16.4% in 2008, lower than the EU total as a whole, suggesting that the favourable swing in the exchange rate between the Pound and Euro actually had minimal impact.

**UK Exports of Food & Non-alcoholic drinks to the EU, 2007-08**
	Country	2007	2008	% change 2008 vs 2007
TOTAL		6,217.5	7,365.2	18.5
1	*Ireland ()**	2,166.9	2,446.0	12.9
2	*France()**	930.8	1,138.4	22.3
3	*Netherlands()**	573.6	776.1	35.3
4	*Germany()**	670.9	689.4	2.8
5	*Spain()**	498.6	571.9	14.7
6	*Italy()**	366.2	426.7	16.5
7	*Belgium()**	312.2	357.4	14.5
8	Denmark	130.1	220.7	69.7
9	Sweden	105.7	128.7	21.7
10	*Portugal()**	85.3	119.2	39.7
11	Poland	75.8	116.4	53.6
12	Greece	76.4	86.2	12.8
13	*Finland()**	34.9	42.5	21.8
14	*Cyprus()**	35.6	42.4	19.0
15	Hungary	23.1	40.2	74.3
16	*Austria()**	29.0	33.6	15.9
17	*Malta()**	29.6	33.1	11.7
18	Czech Republic	24.0	32.2	34.3
19	Romania	13.0	15.2	16.9
20	Slovakia	7.9	11.5	45.2
21	Lithuanua	7.3	9.7	32.7
22	Latvia	5.7	8.6	51.0
23	Estonia	8.4	7.0	-17.3
24	Bulgaria	2.1	5.5	160.6
25	*Slovenia()**	2.8	3.6	30.4
26	*Luxembourg()**	1.6	3.3	106.2

(*) Note: Eurozone members marked as bold

Source: Leatherhead Food International

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Non-EU

The strongest performance in non-EU regions came from Latin America and the Caribbean but this is dominated by a large rise in commodity concentrated/sweetened milk exports to Venezuela (the second largest rise, to Africa, is also largely down to commodity trading).

Of more interest is the 29.5% rise to non-EU Western Europe (led by Norway) and the 28.3% rise to the Middle East (with Dubai, one of the best performing markets for value-added UK food and drink exports in recent years, up 21.6% and Kuwait up 34.8%).

**UK Exports of Food and Non-alcoholic drinks to the Non-EU (2007-08)**
Country	2007	2008	% change 2008-07
Other Western Europe	186.2	241.1	29.5
Norway	72.5	116.8	61.1
Switzerland	41.4	55.2	33.5
Turkey	21.9	23.1	5.1
Eastern Europe	121.8	124.9	2.6
Russia	96.9	100.0	3.2
Ukraine	13.8	126.2	-8.6
North America	340.4	372.9	9.6
United States	237.7	258.1	8.6
Canada	101.8	112.5	10.5
Asia	288.8	337.9	17.0
Japan	71.7	861.1	20.0
Hong Kong	40.7	55.3	35.8
China	33.6	38.0	13.3
Thailand	19.6	23.9	21.6
Malaysia	20.1	19.4	-3.5
Singapore	16.2	18.2	12.3
India	10.1	11.5	14.3
Middle East	218.3	279.9	28.3
Saudi Arabia	57.2	66.6	16.3
Dubai (U.A.E)	42.6	51.9	21.6
Kuwait	22.6	30.4	34.8
Africa	191.3	295.9	54.7
Nigeria	38.1	58.3	53.1
Egypt	37.4	51.9	38.5
South Africa	31.1	31.5	1.1
Latin America and the Caribbean	82.4	130.7	58.6
Venezuela	4.8	38.0	687.4
Brazil	4.6	17.9	291.1
Mexico	13.4	8.5	-36.7
Oceania	70.2	81.8	16.5
Australia	60.0	68.8	14.8
New Zealand	9.6	12.2	27.3