The latest monthly agri-food trade report published on Thursday 4 June by the European Commission shows that during the first month of the coronavirus spread in the EU in February 2020, the monthly value of the EU27 agri-food trade (exports + imports) reached €24.9 billion – 3% more than in February 2019.
While agri-food exports attained a similar value as in previous month, they increased by 4.6% compared to February 2019, reaching €15.1 billion. Imports reached €9.8 billion, although they are still 0.7% above the level of February 2019.
Despite no clear impact yet of the Covid-19 outbreak, growth of EU27 exports to China has been driven by exceptionally high exports of pig meat, infant food and offal meat. The value of EU27 exports to Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Russia increased. However, EU27 export values to the UK and to the U.S. decreased compared with February 2019. Regarding imports, there was, among other trends, a strong increase of imports of cocoa beans from Côte d'Ivoire. The trade surplus for the 12-month period from March 2019 to February 2020 was 20% higher than in March 2018 – February 2019 (EUR 10.42 billion). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)