UK businesses benefit from more than 40 trade deals with 76 countries as a member of the EU. Exports to these countries were worth £3.1Bn in 2018, which represented 14% of total UK food and drink exports.
To date just 15 of more than 40 deals have been completed, which represents 43% of the UK’s food and drink exports to nations where there is an existing trade agreement.
Ian Wright CBE, chief executive of the Food and Drink Federation, said:“UK food and drink exports continue to grow despite our troubled times. FDF has serious concerns that the UK faces the loss of essential market access to a wide range of EU trade deals in the event of a ‘no-deal’ Brexit.
“This will undermine our impressive export performance. It will also restrict our access to essential ingredients and raw materials. Government must deliver on its promise to ensure there is no loss of access to any of these agreements after the UK leaves the EU.
“The failure to secure continuity agreements with these markets will place UK manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage to EU competitors. That will harm the interests of UK consumers.”
The FDF has released a report, which shows food and drink exports increased 5.1% to £11.3Bn in H1 (the first half of the financial year 2019) in comparison to 2018. However, this rate of growth is lower than that seen in H1 of 2018.
Growth during the first period of 2019 has been driven by an increase in the value of exports to non-EU countries (+9.8%). The year-on-year increase in the value of non-EU exports is almost three times that of exports to EU countries.