UK food and drinks industry exports reach £6.5bn, says FDF report

The total of food and non-alcoholic drink exports from the UK has risen to £6.5bn during the first six months of the year, according to a report by the Food and Drink Federation (FDF).

This is an increase of 4.8% over the same period in 2013.

Both the EU and non-EU markets saw a rise of 2.5% and 12%, respectively despite stronger sterling and falling EU GDP working against UK exporters.

The study further found that the trade balance between food and non-food alcoholic drink had improved by 4.9% to a deficit of £12bn, which is in contrast to the trade balance of other UK products that have worsened by 84% in the first half of 2014.

The total of food and drink exports, including alcoholic drinks, was down by 0.5% in 2013 due to a decrease in whiskey exports owing to slower growth in Asia and other markets.

Ireland and France are UK’s biggest exporters of food and drinks. Algeria follows closely in terms of value gained with the increase of milk powder and cereals sales by £37m and £13m respectively. This led to a 429% increase in market sales.

A number of the products to see maximum sales in the year were salmon (£261m), chocolate (£253m), cheese (£249m), breakfast cereals (£189m) and soft drinks (£188m).

FDF’s economic and commercial services director Steve Barnes said: "Against a backdrop of challenging conditions in food retail in the UK and overall goods exports falling, food and non-alcoholic drink exports continue to grow well and individual products to certain markets are experiencing rapid growth.

"Our brands have been working hard to develop new opportunities in international markets and to help businesses boost exports further we have been working with the UK Government and others to introduce a raft of new resources and expert advice on opentoexport.com this autumn."

To boost international trade, FDF and Open to Export have launched ‘Food and Drink Export Month’ from 15 September – 10 October and will feature free live webinars, guides and case studies to help small and medium-sized food and drink companies expand their exports business.

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Image: The UK food and non-alcoholic drink exports have risen to £6.5bn. Photo: courtesy of KEKO64 at freedigitalphotos.net.