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Stats at a Glance

These statistics have been compiled from the latest industry data on food and drink manufacturing and the most recent Office of National Statistics Annual Business Enquiry.

• The food and drink manufacturing industry is the single largest manufacturing sector in the UK, with a turnover of £72.8bn, with a gross value added of £21.6bn [1], accounting for 15% of the total manufacturing sector.
• The industry employs some 440,000 people. This represents 14% of the manufacturing workforce in the UK.
• Our sector is an important trading partner with Europe: exporting over £9bn of food and drink products a year, 79% of which go the EU. We are the world's eighth largest exporter of food and drink [2].
• The industry is a key partner for British farmers: buying two thirds of all the UK's agricultural produce. All this economic activity is carried out by just over 7,000 food and drink enterprises – many of which are small companies employing less than 10 people.

1. Information taken from latest ONS Annual Business Inquiry
2. UK Food and Drink Export Performance 2009; Leatherhead Food Research