According to the latest figures published by the European Commission Wednesday 27 January, the value of EU agri-food exports in November 2015 amounted to €10.9 billion, approximately €500 million higher than in November 2014. Exports to the USA, China – now taking over from Russia as the EU's second agri-food export destination - Saudi Arabia, Turkey and South Korea have shown a particular increase in the last 12 months.
Although November's amount follows the usual seasonal slowdown in trade relative to October, figures for the 12 months from December 2014-November 2015 show a 5.7% increase in value compared to the preceding 12 months, with 10 out of 12 months exceeding the value from the previous year.
In sectoral terms, the highest rise in monthly export values were witnessed for vegetables and citrus fruit.
As far as EU imports are concerned, the value of EU agri-food imports remained at €9.5 billion, much the same level as in October 2015.
November saw an increase in the import value of tropical and other fruit, while imports of citrus fruit went down.
In all, the trade balance for all EU agri-food products in November 2015 showed an export surplus of about €1.3 billion.
