December 9, 2010

Estonian meat, bi-product export sales hit record in H1 2010

Estonia's meat and meat product exports grew by 28% to EEK453 million (EUR 28.9 million; US$38.33 million) in the first half of 2010 against the same period last year, according to the Estonian Institute of Economic Research (EKI).

The figure is the highest of recent years.

After accession to the EU the export of Estonian meat and meat products was the liveliest in 2008, when the sum total of the export amounted to EEK425 million (US$35.97 million).

Of the total export of agricultural products the share of meat and meat products was 8.1% in the first half this year.

The share of pork in the export was EEK137 million (US$11.59 million), EEK227 million (US$19.21 million) for sausage and salami, EEK67 million (US$5.67 million) for canned meat and poultry, and EEK55 million (US$4.65 million) for offal.

In addition to meat and meat products, Estonia exported live cattle for EEK38 million (US$3.22 million) and live pigs for EEK131 million (US$11.09 million).

The import of meat and meat products totalled EEK710 million (US$60.08 million), up 8.6% compared with the same period last year. Pork accounted for the biggest proportion also in the imports and its import in H1 totalled EEK311 million (US$26.32 million); poultry and offal followed with EEK169 million (US$14.30 million), beef with EEK78 million (US$6.6 million) and canned meat with EEK63 million (US$5.33 million).

The sales turnover of Estonian meat-packing companies totalled EEK1,697 million (US$143.61 million), down 8.7% on-year. During the first half of the year meat-packers earned a total profit of EEK18 million (US$1.52 million). The meat-packers made investments to the tune of EEK91 million (US$7.7 million) during the first half of the year. The year ago the same indicator was EEK48 million (US$4.06 million). During the first half of the year meat-packers provided jobs to 2,913 people.

As of the end of June, there were 242,000 head of cattle, 372,500 pigs and 2.1 million chickens in Estonia.