The protein and fresh sectors helped drive another “record” year for UK food exports in 2011, the country’s manufacturing association has said.
Sales of meat and animal products increased over 21% last year, while the revenue made from fruit and vegetable shipments was up by more than 30%, figures from The Food and Drink Federation has showed.
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The FDF said meat and animal product sales were up 21.2% to GBP1.79bn (US$2.85bn) in 2011. Fruit and vegetable sales jumped 30.8% to GBP1.08bn. In total, the UK exported GBP12.15bn of food and non-alcoholic beverages last year, an increase of 11.4% on 2011 and the seventh year in a row that the industry had achieved “record” sales, the association said.
FDF director general Melanie Leech said: “Whilst the domestic market is growing at a steady rate we are seeing very strong performance from food and drink exports. There remains considerable interest in British heritage brands and around our health and wellbeing innovation.”
The FDF said the weakness of sterling “undoubtedly kept UK exports competitive”. It noted that the pound did strengthen against the euro towards the end of 2011, which, combined with the crisis in the eurozone were factors in growing slowing in the last three months of the year. In the first nine months of 2011, exports were up 12.2% year-on-year.
Ireland remains the top export market for UK food and soft drinks, with sales up 8.1% to GBP2.93bn. The value of sales to Ireland are almost double those to France, to which UK manufacturers exported GBP1.45bn of products in 2011, up 6.8% on 2010.
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By GlobalDataThe Netherlands and Germany remained third and fourth on the list of the top export markets for UK food and soft drinks, although Belgium became the fifth-biggest in 2011, supplanting Spain. Exports to Spain fell 8.7% as economic problems in the country hit consumption.
UK manufacturers saw exports increase to 16 of the top 20 markets. Exports to Italy and Portugal fell amid worsening economic conditions in those countries. Sales to Russia fell as exports of frozen fish to the country dropped.
Of the major sectors shown in the data, sugar and sugar confectionery was the only one to see exports fall. Exports declined 14.8%, as sales of white sugar fell 36.9%. However, the FDF said the “key value-added category” of sugar confectionery saw sales increase 10.8%.
