May 10th, 2023
3 mins
The European Commission have published their latest report which monitors the EU agri-food trade.
The report reviews EU exports and imports of agri-food products during 2022 and shows that EU agri-food trade totalled €401.5 billion during the year, with a positive trade balance of €58 billion. They report that, despite global price increases, volumes of agri-food products traded have not decreased, and occasionally have even increased.
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 (representing 7% and 10% of EU exports, respectively).
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 drop in Chinese demand.
In terms of trade partners, the UK still is by far the first destination for EU exports, representing one fifth of total EU exports. The United States ranks second, with 13% of EU exports in 2022 followed by China with 7% of total EU exports.
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, combined with an increasing need for imports of sunflower and soya beans due to the summer drought of 2022. This has also been the case for maize imports to compensate the EU domestic drop in production.
Brazil remains the first import source for the EU, representing 12% of total EU imports. The United Kingdom ranks second, with 9% of EU imports in 2022. Ukraine has overtaken the US in 2022 as the third import source of EU agri-food imports.
Read the report in full here
