Spanish agri-food exports recorded a value of 60,118 million euros in 2021, that figure is a record in the historical series and represents an increase of 11% over the previous year, according to data from the annual preview of Foreign Trade, 2021, published by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
The trade surplus also exceeded its ceiling and stood at 18,949 million euros, which is 0.8% more than in the previous year, while agri-food imports grew by 16.4% to 41,119 million euros.
Agriculture has specified that these data confirm once again the important role played by the agri-food and fisheries sector in Spanish foreign trade, which already represents 19% of total sales. Imports of agri-food products account for 12% of the Spanish economy’s foreign purchases.
Fruits are in first place, with sales of 10,162 million euros, an increase of 5%, followed by meats, with 8,819 million euros, up 4.4%, and vegetables, which closed with 7,461 million euros and a growth of 7.5%. The largest increase in exports, up 27.4%, was in the oils and fats group, driven mainly by olive oil, with a total export value of €5,359 million.
For yet another year, the European Union repeated as the main client of our agri-food exports in 2021 increasing by 11% over 2020. Specifically, our European partners were the recipients of agri-food products for 37,915 million euros (63%). France, Germany and Italy were the best ‘customers’ with strong increases in the Italian (+16.2%), German (+10%) and French (+8.9%) markets.
With respect to sales to third countries, agri-food exports also increased by 10.2% last year. Among the most outstanding countries are the United States, where growth was 19.7%, reaching a value of 2,495 million euros. Followed by the United Kingdom, the main buyer outside the community club, with 4,345 million euros in 2021, 2.2% more than in 2020. China bought agri-food products for 3,574 million although exports to the Asian giant fell by 6%.
Image source: “bandera” by R.Duran is marked with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
