There was a 20.1 percent decrease in the value of salmon sold by the United Kingdom to overseas markets in the January through September 2018 period, despite an overall 1.8 percent rise in the country’s food and drink export earnings, according to the latest figures issued by the Food and Drink Federation (FDF).
Salmon exports for the nine months totaled GBP 461.6 million (USD 588.9 million, EUR 517.2 million), which was GBP 116.2 million (USD 148.2 million, EUR 130.4 million) less than in the corresponding period of 2017. The volume exported was down 20 percent.
The fall in salmon exports was primarily the result of a 19 percent drop in sales to France, and a 36.2 percent reduction in the U.S. trade. In volume terms, the French and U.S. reductions amounted to 16,600 metric tons (MT), equivalent to a loss of GBP 94.3 million (USD 120.3 million, EUR 105.8 million).
Salmon has now slipped from second to fourth position on the United Kingdom’s most valuable export food and drink product list, behind whisky (GBP 3.3 billion, USD 4.2 billion, EUR 3.7 billion), chocolate (GBP 543.6 million, USD 693.4 million, EUR 609.8 million) and cheese (GBP 496 million, USD 632.7 million, EUR 556.4 million). Of the top 10 export products, only salmon and beer (eighth placed) have lost any value this year.
Overall, total U.K. food and drink exports achieved a total value of GBP 16.4 billion (USD 20.9 billion, EUR 18.4 billion) in the first nine months of the year, with the trade deficit narrowing by 1.3 percent or GBP 243 million (USD 310 million, EUR 272.5 million) to GBP 18 billion (USD 23 billion, EUR 20.2 billion).
Exports to E.U. markets grew by 4.1 percent, while sales to non-E.U. markets slipped by 1.8 percent. E.U. sales account for 62.1 percent of total food and drink exports.
