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The latest monitoring report published by the European Commission shows that EU agri-food trade totaled €401.5 billion in 2022, with a positive trade balance of €58 billion. Despite global price increases, volumes of agri-food products traded have not decreased, and occasionally have even increased.
Exports
In 2022, EU agri-food exports reached €229.8 billion, a 31% increase compared with 2021. Cereals and cereal preparations & milling products have been increasing the most in EU total exports. These products represented 7% and 10% of EU exports, respectively with the EU exporting EUR 16.9 billion of cereals and EUR 23 billion of cereal preparations and milling products. In line with its commitment to global food security, the EU has been increasing wheat exports to developing economies. Wheat export values increased 63% year-to-year, reaching EUR 11.6 billion. The most important destinations were Algeria (4.9 million tonnes), Morocco (4.1 million tonnes), Egypt (2.9 million tonnes) and Nigeria (2.5 million tonnes).
One of EU’s primary exports remains dairy products with €20.4 billion’s worth of export in 2022. Pigmeat also remained the largest exporting meat product that past year with €13.8 billion, despite a 40% drop in Chinese demand.
Imports
In 2022, EU imports increased by 32% compared to 2021 in value terms. This represents €172 billion of imports. This is largely due to an increase in global prices, especially for oilseed products and coffee. The first category of imported products are oilseeds and protein crops of which the EU imported €25.8 billion worth in 2022. The rise in global prices has been combined with an increasing need for imports of sunflower and soya beans due to the summer drought of 2022. Soya meal imports reached EUR 8.7 billion. This has also been the case for maize imports to compensate the EU domestic drop in production.
April 13, 2023/ European Commission/ European Union.
https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu
