The EU imported 93 million tonnes of food worth 101 billion Euro in 2016
At the same time, the European Union exported 91 million tonnes of food worth 84 billion Euro. Compared to 2012, food exports increased by 42% in volume and 20% in value.
In terms of value, the Netherlands is the largest exporter of food to non-EU countries.
Last year, the Netherlands exported food worth 13 billion Euro to non-EU countries, representing 16% of the EU's total food exports to third countries.
The largest food exporters to non-EU countries last year were the Netherlands, Germany and France (each with 11 billion Euro; 11% of all EU food exports to third countries), followed by Italy and Spain (each accounting for about 8 billion Euro; 9% of all EU food exports to non-EU destinations).
The main destination for these exports was the US. In 2016, EU Member States shipped eight billion Euro worth of food to the United States. Other major destinations were China (7.5 billion Euro), Switzerland (5.6 billion Euro), Japan and Saudi Arabia (3.8 billion each).
EU food imports from countries outside the EU bloc came mainly from Brazil (9 billion), the US (7 billion), Norway (6.8 billion), Argentina (5.4 billion) euro), China (4.8 billion) and Turkey (4.5 billion Euro).
As far as fruit and vegetables are concerned, last year, EU countries imported products worth nearly 30 billion Euro.
Source: economica.net
