2017: another record year for EU agri-food exports
For the year 2017, EU agri-food exports reached a record value of EUR 137.9 billion, corresponding to a sustained increase by 5.1% in value terms compared to 2016.
Major gains in annual values have been achieved in agri-food exports to the USA (EUR +1.22 billion; +6%), Russia (EUR +892 million; +16%) and several Asian markets: Japan (EUR +645 million; +11%), China (EUR +591 million; +5%), Hong Kong (EUR +366 million; +10%) and Korea (EUR +341 million; +13%). Further annual increases were recorded in agri-food exports to Turkey (EUR +456 million; +14%) and Switzerland (EUR +333 million; +4%), while increases of more than EUR 200 million also took place in exports to Philippines, Ukraine and Australia in the last twelve-month period.
2017 export values remain down for North African and Middle East destinations mainly due to less exports in cereals), in particular Saudi Arabia (EUR -532 million; -12%), Egypt (EUR 0.448 million; -25%), Morocco (EUR -176 million; -10%), Libya (EUR -163 million and Algeria (EUR -154 million; -6%) Agri-food exports to Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates also went down appreciably in 2017.
