The food and drink industry is the UK’s largest manufacturing sector, contributing £29billion to the economy annually and employing over 440,000 people. We are a key part of the nation’s £120 billion ‘farm to fork’ food chain.
The FDF's economic reporting is a key avenue for ensuring that the economic importance of the UK food and drink industry is widely recognised, as well as its potential for growth and productivity improvements.
We do this by producing regular reports on business confidence, export performance and industry growth priorities with FDF partners such as Santander.
We are committed to reporting regularly on the sector’s performance, and highlighting industry’s successes to our key stakeholders, government, industry and the media. Learn more about our sector’s achievements and the most up-to-date industry data.
The FDF’s quarterly Business Confidence Survey, launched in early 2018, showcases business sentiment over time and highlights the key opportunities and risks facing food and drink manufacturing businesses across the UK.
The FDF publishes quarterly export statistical reports, outlining the latest UK food and drink export figures. As the sector focuses on growing exports, the FDF showcases the success of our industry via case studies.
The FDF publishes various reports across a wide range of policy areas highlighting the achievements, performance, and challenges facing our industry and the wider food and drink supply chain.
To highlight the geographical spread of the industry, the FDF produces national regional analysis of key economic indicators including: the sector’s economic contribution in each area, how many people we employ, average wages and trade statistics.
02 September 2021
FDF’s newly-released H1 2021 Trade Snapshot looks at UK food and drink trade trends during the first half of 2021.
Read more20 July 2021
The report looks at the impact on industry and consumer food prices of seven different policies coming from either the sustainability or public health policy arenas.
Read moreSales of UK food and drink to non-EU countries were up 13%, accounting for 46.6% (£4.3bn) of all UK food and drink exports in the first half of 2021, driven by a return to growth in China, Singapore, Australia, Japan and the Gulf region. This increase means non-EU exports are now almost back to pre-Covid levels.
The FDF has today warned that consumers will inevitably face higher food and drink prices if manufacturers are forced to absorb the cost of proposed Government policies.
The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) has announced the shortlist for the Food and Drink Federation Awards 2021, which takes place in person on Thursday 16 September 2021 at The Royal Lancaster, London.
