Agri-food exports hit a record high and exceed 60 billion euros

Imports also grew by 16.4 % to 41,119 billion euros.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has published the Annual Preview of Foreign Trade 2021, a first synthetic analysis of the main magnitudes and indicators that provide insight into the foreign trade situation in the agri-food and fisheries sector, based on provisional data for the year 2021 provided by the Customs and Excise Department of the State Tax Administration Agency (Agencia Estatal de Administración Tributaria).

These data confirm once again the important role played by the agri-food and fisheries sector in Spanish foreign trade, where it already represents 19% of total sales. Imports of agri-food products account for 12% of the Spanish economy's purchases abroad.

In terms of the main export sub-sectors in 2021, fruit ranked first, with sales of 10,162 million euros, an increase of 5 %. Meat came in second place (8,819 million euros, 4.4 % more than in 2020), followed by vegetables (7,461 million, with a growth of 7.5 %).

The largest increase in exports, 27.4 %, was in the oils and fats group, driven mainly by olive oil, with a total export value of 5,359 million. Also noteworthy is the increase in beverages (13.8%), with an overall amount of 4,964 million euros.

The European Union was once again the main destination for Spanish agri-food exports in 2021, accounting for 63 % of the total (37,915 million), with an increase of 11.4 % over 2020. The increases in sales to Italy (16.2 %), Germany (10 %) and France (8.9 %) stand out.

Sales to third countries increased by 10.2 %, with a notable increase of 19.7 % for a total value of 2,495 million euros in the United States. The United Kingdom is the main non-EU buyer of Spanish agri-food products, with 4,345 million euros in 2021, 2.2% more than in 2020.

Non official translation