The EU Commission has released a report looking at the impact of the economic downturn on agricultural trade, in particular contrasting the fortunes of the EU and some of its major competitors.
Key finding included:
- The EU has lost its place as the world's largest exporter to the US. Nevertheless, it remains a significant exporter on world agricultural markets, with $119 billion of exports in 2007 - a point that is often overlooked. It is, on the other hand, by some way the world's largest agricultural importer - importing $115 billion of farm goods on average between 2007-9.
- The EU has recently moved to becoming a net importer of food in value terms. It's worth noting that as a generalisation, EU exports are dominated by final products whereas imports lean more towards basic commodities.
- The economic downturn took its toll on EU and US exports, leading to falls of 13-14% in value between 2007-9. There are, however, now signs of recovery.
- The EU still imports significantly more from developing countries than the US, Japan, Canada, Australian and New Zealand combined - $83 billion in 2007-9 compared to £64billion. Over 70% of EU imports come from developing countries, compared to 48% in the US.
- The EU's main trading partners remain the US and Russia with China a big growth market.
Read the full report here.
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