The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) reports that export values for all the UK's top ten products exported to EU have dropped from 2019 to 2021.
Exports of UK food and drink products to the EU fell by 47% in the first quarter of this year, compared to Q1 2020. Lamb and mutton export values fell by 14.3% since 2019.
According to the FDF, the fall has been caused by the ongoing impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and changes in the UK's trading relationships.
Imports from the EU were also down 10%, a decrease attributed to several factors including the UK's hospitality sector closures, reduced demand for ingredients, import substitution and stockpiling in late 2020.
Products of animal origin have been heavily impacted, with large drops in imports of EU pork, chicken and beef.
Dominic Goudie, head of international trade at the FDF, said: “The loss of £2 billion of exports to the EU is a disaster for our industry, and is a very clear indication of the scale of losses that UK manufacturers face in the longer-term due to new trade barriers with the EU.
“We set out a plan to mitigate these impacts by boosting support for exporters, and this was backed by the Trade and Agriculture Commission. The Government must stop prevaricating and get behind these proposals to help exporters that have been shut out of trading with the EU.”
There has been a return to strong growth in exports to East Asia, with exports to China, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea all above levels seen in Q! 2020.
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
