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Agriculture, trade and the downturn

01 Jul 2010

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.

corn and coins

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.

Get more economics and international trade news from the NFU here.

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