Fruit and vegetable exports have risen dramatically in the last year due to the weak sterling and increasing foreign opportunities, new export figures released by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) have revealed.
The sector has seen a 14.4 per cent rise in the first three-quarters of the financial year, with the food and drink industry as a whole generating almost £10 billion in exports - a 16 per cent rise.
The fruit and vegetable sector exported £485.7 million-worth of product in the first nine months of 2008, as opposed to £424.7m for the same period in 2007.
The UKTI employs more than 2,500 staff in 99 different markets and funds businesses up to £1,800 to attend trade events, but there are concerns that the closure of representative organisation Food from Britain may damage the increased UK strength.
Mark Robson, international trade director for UKTI, told freshinfo: “We need to co-ordinate and continue the work Food from Britain has done so far, as it will continue to operate on a commercial basis. There are lots of opportunities out there for people to find the business that suits them.
“Exports can also drive up the job market as people source locally and work with local businesses to export internationally.”
The figures also reveal that Poland, the Netherlands, Russia and Australia are the fastest-growing markets for UK food and drink, with growth of between 26 and 57 per cent.
Eastern Europe is also proving more than receptive to UK exports, with Latvia seeing a 188 per cent rise to become a £24.5m market. Lithuania saw a 77 per cent rise to £10.1m, while Slovakia saw its UK exports swell by more than 56 per cent.
But the news comes after the British Chamber of Commerce warned that UK companies should carefully consider seeking foreign markets last week, and readers of freshinfo.com displayed similar concerns in response to this week's poll.
“UK companies, in the main, are only ever speculative exporters and that will never change. There are a few out there who programme exports, but they are a minority,” one pollster commented on freshinfo this week. “While this attitude prevails, UK producer firms will try and make some extra cash when they can, but once it gets difficult they will walk away.”
Another poster agreed: “Any trader worth his money will already be exporting to Europe, but generally that is for over-supply fruit that is sitting in the UK, not so much English-grown produce.”
But some thought the UK needed to rally round and support internal business. One response read: “These UK produce firms should go to the Bank of England and ask for a few million to invest into selling to Europe, but don't forget that Europe is in a bigger mess than the UK and these firms should look into making money in the long term and not in the short term, due to the currency situation.”
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