America and China the top buyers

The European Union achieved a new all-time record value for agri-food exports during 2016 – selling commodities to the tune of €130.7 billion.

In total, the value of Europe’s agri-food exports rose €1.7bn – or 1.3% – on the previous year and was up €29.4bn (29%) on export figures from 2011.

The United States and China were the EU’s biggest buyers, according to a report carried out for the European Commission, with pig meat and olive oil cited as two of the EU’s strongest year-on-year export gains.

The statistics were detailed within analysis compiled for the EC’s Agriculture and Rural Development Directorate.

It said the USA market for EU agri-food products was worth €20.64bn in 2016, up 2.5% from the year before.

Meanwhile, China spent €11.38bn importing food and drink from Europe, up by 12%.

The report said, during 2016, the 10 most important export destinations for EU agri-food exports were USA, China, Switzerland, Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Norway, Hong Kong, Canada and Turkey.

In turn, the eight greatest sources of agri-food imports into the EU were Brazil, USA, Argentina, China, Switzerland, Turkey, Indonesia, Ukraine, Ivory Coast and India.

Cocoa beans, vegetable oils, fresh vegetables, citrus fruit and oilseeds ranking as the most highly imported commodities, although the overall value of EU agri-food imports went down 1.5% throughout 2016 to €112bn.

The agri-food sector encompassed 7.5% of the EU’s total goods exports in 2016.