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Top Line Performance

UK food and non-alcoholic drink exports grew 4.4% in 2009 to £9.65bn, a fifth consecutive year of record food and non-alcoholic drink export performance.

Compared to the 19.8% growth rate in 2008, the 2009 performance could be viewed as lacklustre, but with trading conditions proving increasingly difficult as the year progressed (food and nonalcoholic drink export growth slowed markedly after the first quarter) and the economic climate continuing to prove challenging as global demand slumped, the end result was highly credible.

Growth of 4.4% compares extremely favourably to the 11.8% drop in exports for all UK commodities during 2009, meaning food and drink outperformed the export activity of UK manufacturing as a whole.

The continued weakness of the Pound has certainly helped in the last year (£1 was worth €1.12 in 2009 versus €1.28 in 2008 and US$1.55 in 2009 versus US$1.88 in 2008), however, most of the benefit was seen in the first half of the year as the Pound strengthened later on making UK exports less competitive.

Including alcoholic drinks, total food and drink exports were worth £14.31bn in 2009, 5.0% up on 2008. The key whisky sector, worth £3.21bn alone, achieved only 2.5% growth for the year and much of this was down to a strong final quarter performance (whisky exports were down on 2008 up until that point).

Export Sectors

The best performing sector in 2009 was non-alcoholic drinks (soft drinks and waters), albeit the smallest sector, with growth of 20.6% to £318.6m driven by strong gains in the major European markets such as Ireland, France, Spain and Germany.

The only other sector in double digit growth was fish and seafood, up 15.0% to £1,160.4m including strong growth for all key product sectors except crustaceans which continue to struggle in the key Spanish market.

British beef (+20.8% to £257.5m) and lamb (+18.6% to £311.9m) continue to see good progress in European markets and the meat category as a whole posted a solid 5.0% gain for the year, taking the value of meat exports to £1,289.6m.

The dairy sector was the laggard of the year, down 6.9% to £776.9m. The strong growth seen in cheese exports in recent years has come to a shuddering halt, with just a 0.5% rise in 2009 and exports to key cheese markets such as the Netherlands and the USA struggling to get near previous year levels.

Other major added value product areas in strong growth include breakfast cereals at +17.2%, sweet biscuits at +8.3%, sauces and condiments at +9.2% and sugar confectionery at +10.9%.

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Export regions

The EU share of UK food and non-alcoholic drinks exports was 79.2% in 2009 but non-EU countries led the way in terms of growth (7.3% growth for non-EU vs. 3.6% growth for EU). Key non-EU countries leading the charge include the USA (+17.4%, with growth driven by fish and seafood), Canada (+10.5%, driven by tea and sauces and condiments), the UAE (+18.3%, with dairy, breakfast cereals and bakery products strong performers), Australia (+17.2%, with chocolate and breakfast cereals well up) and Saudi Arabia (+14.0%, with sauces and condiments and breakfast cereals strong).

Source: Leatherhead Food Research

The main EU economies still dominate the top 10 list of UK food and non-alcoholic drink export markets (only the US from outside the EU makes it into the top 10) and have largely had a solid if unspectacular 2009 in terms of growth. For example, growth for the top 3 markets of Ireland, France and the Netherlands was 5.7%, 6.0% and 9.0% respectively.

Export progress to the EU markets within the Central European region however has faltered somewhat with exports to Poland, for example, down 3.0%.

UK food and non-alcoholic drink exports to the 16 members of the Eurozone grew by 5.0% in 2009, above the 3.6% growth rate for the EU as a whole and reinforcing the UK's reliance on the major Eurozone trading partners within Europe.

Source: Leatherhead Food Research

Notes for comparison

Including alcoholic drinks, total food and drink exports were £14.31bn, 5.0% up on 2008.

All UK commodities exports at £226.86bn in 2009 were down 11.8% on 2008 (i.e. the food/nonalcoholic drinks sector continues to significantly outperform the total of all export sectors, and food/non-alcoholic drinks share of total UK exports for 2009 is 4.3%).

Imports of food and non-alcoholic drinks were £29.92bn, up just 2.7% on the same period in 2008 as food and non-alcoholic drinks exports continue to grow ahead of imports, reversing the trend over the last decade.

However, the food and non-alcoholic drinks trade gap has grown 1.9% from a deficit of £19.89bn in 2008, to a deficit of £20.27bn in 2009.

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More information

• Top sectors
• Top Markets
• Regional Analysis

Download the full UK Food and Drink Performance (2009) statistics research report - pdf | 228kb

Research carried out by Leatherhead Food Research for the Food and Drink Federation (April 2010)