June 21, 2016

EU hits record value for agri-food trade balance in April

The EU agri-food trade balance stood at a record value of €1.5 billion (US$1.7 billion) in April, or 50% higher than the €1 billion registered in April 2015, according to the latest monthly statistical report. The April 2016 exports were worth almost €11 billion ($12.5 billion), or €0.9 billion less than in April 2015.

For the past 12 months, EU agri-food exports reached a value of almost €129 billion ($146.2 billion), representing an increase of 2.8% compared with the same period a year ago. The increase of EU agri-food exports to China was particularly significant with 29% over the last 12 months.

April's report focused on pig meat, one of the EU agri-food flagship products, which accounted for around 5% of the total agri-food value. Since the Russian sanitary ban was implemented in 2014, pork formerly exported to Russia has been mainly reoriented toward certain Asian countries like China and the Philippines, which were already growing destinations even before 2014.

For April 2016, pork was the agri-food product that witnessed the highest increase in monthly export values.