EU agrifood exports break records

Despite impressive volumes of EU agrifood exports in the first half of 2019, the growth increased even further in September 2019 to a record +18% compared to the same month in 2018, reaching  €13.06 billion. Agrifood imports also increased to €9.32 billion – 6% above the level of September 2018. As a result, the monthly agrifood trade surplus increased to €3.7 billion – the biggest monthly EU agrifood trade surplus ever recorded. The highest increases in monthly export values (September 2019 compared to September 2018) were recorded for China (+€509 million, +55.4%), the US (+€305 million, +15.6%) and Japan (+€162 million, +30.6%), while exports decreased most to Hong Kong (-€37 million, -12.1%), Algeria (-€19 million, -9.6%) and Egypt (-€14 million, -9.9%).

The product with the greatest increase in import value was recorded for tropical fruit (+€128 million, +13%).The value of September 2019 EU agri-food imports compared to September 2018 increased most from Ukraine (+€108 million, +27%), South Africa (+€72 million, +25%) and Chile (+€48 million, +29%). The value of imports went down most from the US (-€106 million, -12%), the Russian Federation (-€17 million, 13%) and Ghana (-€15 million, – 11%).