23 September 2013

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Food and Drink Federation (FDF) today reported that in the first half of 2013, total UK food and non-alcoholic drink exports grew by 2.5% to £6.1billion. This comes as welcome news with FDF a key partner in today's launch of the Open To Export Food Drink Focus Week, a programme of online activity to support food and drink companies in developing export business.

Although 2013 began slowly with food and non-alcoholic drinks exports down by 3.4% in Q1, this was offset by strong Q2 growth (+9%) – exports in June alone were up over 13%. Exports to the EU27 showed positive signs (+1%) though this was eclipsed by continued high growth to non-EU markets, up 7.5%. China leapt up ten places to enter the top 10 markets for food and drink companies, a climb largely accounted for by a boom in British pork exports (+591%).

Value added foods were up in both EU (+4.9%) and non-EU markets (+8.2%), and sweet biscuits performed particularly strongly (+14.2%). Against a difficult backdrop with cumulative UK exports down by 3.3%, food and non-alcoholic drink exports have performed solidly, showing a 2.5% increase compared to the same period last year.

Report Highlights

Categories:

Chocolate: +5.4% to £249m Cheese: +3.8% to £210m Soft drinks: +5.5% to £187m Sweet Biscuits: +14.2% to £136m Sugar confectionery: +6.8% to £86m

Selected markets:

China: +126% to £102m Australia: +25.9% to £55m South Africa: +25.4% to £50m Hong Kong: +24.9% to £73m Denmark: +10.8% to £108m

FDF's Economic and Commercial Services Director, Steve Barnes, said:

“Q1 started slowly with the Eurozone gripped by recession and extreme weather, and the UK still feeling the effects of a disappointing 2012 harvest. However, Q2 was much better as the EU pulled out of recession and consumer confidence grew. The performance to non-EU markets was hugely encouraging in particular and a credit to companies investing to grow internationally.

“Despite the good news, there is huge untapped potential for boosting UK food and drink exports. So, to help equip food and drink companies with the information they need to realise their export potential, FDF is pleased to launch our new guide, '10 Steps to Export Success'. We're also very proud to be playing a lead role in innovative initiatives such as the Open to Export Food and Drink Focus Week.”

Notes for editors:

1. The "="pdf"">full FDF UK food and drink export statistics
for the first six months of 2013.