U.K’s Beef Trade on Path of Recovery From Post-Brexit Difficulties

Published 2022년 3월 30일

U.K beef exports are showing signs of progress following post-Brexit trade difficulties. Beef exports are up 56.7% YoY in Jan 2022, whereas beef imports are up 45% YoY. The signing of new trade agreements may alter the U.K’s traditional market destinations and sourcing countries.

Development in exports

HMRC data for January 2022 show signs of progress in the U.K beef trade when compared to January 2021. Exports of fresh and frozen beef reached 7.160 mt in Jan 2022, up 56.7% from 4.570 mt. Perhaps even more interesting is it that exports to the EU grew 88.6%, suggesting that parts of the problems with higher costs for customs declarations, customs agents, freight forwarders and additional veterinary inspections post-Brexit have been dealt with. However, export volumes are still 17% below the five-year average.

The growth in export value significantly outpaced the growth in volumes, as Jan 2022 beef exports were worth GBP 26 million compared to GBP 14 million in 2021, equivalent to a 85.6% increase YoY. The UK’s key markets in the EU are Ireland, France and Netherlands and the YoY export volume growth in these markets were 72%, 122% and 68% respectively in Jan 2022. Outside the EU, a significant export increase was reported for Japan, where exports grew from 24 mt in Jan 2021 to 325 mt in Jan 2022 (1,255%) as the new trade agreement that entered into force at the beginning of 2021 has been more widely utilized.

Data source: HMRC data

Development in imports

Imports of fresh and frozen beef totaled 20,947 mt in Jan 2022 up 45% YoY from 14,441 in Jan 2021 and the import figure for the first month of the year is 11% over the five-year average. In terms of value, the imports of Jan 2022 were worth GBP 101,5 million, which is 74.9% higher than the GBP 58 million imports in Jan 2022. With a 72% share of import volume, Ireland continues to dominate the U.K beef markets and the import of Irish beef has increased 21.3% YoY. However, the Irish dominance may well be threatened by non-EU countries in the coming years, as trade agreements with New Zealand and Australia have already been concluded, while the desire of a potential Mercosur-UK trade deal has been made public by Brazil. Trade data from Jan 2022 show early indications of the potential of these countries’ export abilities, as imports from Argentina rose from 45 mt to 56 mt (25%), Australia from 27 mt to 119 mt (344%) Brazil from 54 mt to 218 mt (306%) and New Zealand from 6 mt to 99 mt (1,607%).