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EU exports of agri-food products reached €138 billion in 2017, representing an annual increase of 5.1%. With imports at a value of €117 billion, the EU has a net trade surplus of €21 billion in its agri-food trade, according to the 2017 annual agri-food trade report published today.
The entire output of the EU's agricultural sector is estimated at €427 billion in 2017. The food processing chain accounts for 7.5% of employment and 3.7% of total value added in the EU. The share of exports in production value chain is continuously increasing and as such, exports are a driver for jobs and growth for the European agri-food sector.
EU exports to all our current five main partners increased: to the United States, China, Switzerland, Russia and Japan. The Commission has also made recent progress on multiple bilateral trade negotiations, thus further opening new markets for EU agri-food products. In September 2017, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada was provisionally applied. The EU and Japan have reached an agreement, currently in the process of ratification, on an Economic Partnership Agreement in December 2017 with many benefits for the European agri-food sector. An agreement in principle with Mexico on the modernisation of the current trade agreement was also reached in April 2018.
EU agri-food export products
Wine and spirits dominate the basket of exported products (respectively 9% and 8% of total EU agri-food exports). They are followed by infant food, and various food preparations. Chocolate, and pig meat complete the overview of products with more than EUR 5 billion of exports (4% of total export value). Notably, exports of wine (+11.7%) and infant food (+10.8%) increased above the average increase of agri-food exports (+5.1%).
Outside the top 5 products, the concentration of pig meat exports is particularly high with 75% going to the main 5 destinations in 2017. The top two destinations - China and Japan - are absorbing 49% of all EU exports for pig meat, each of them about 25%.
Pork meat exports to China decreased significantly in export value (-29% to 1.2 billion) and the share is back to more normal levels, after the enormous hike in 2016. A similar pattern can be seen for offal (-18% to 1.1 billion). Pork meat (10%) and offal and other meats (9%) – the latter mainly comprised of products originating from pigs – account together for almost a fifth of EU exports to China in 2016, demonstrating the importance of pig meat for this destination.
Thursday June 7, 2018/ EC/ European Union.
https://ec.europa.eu
