A new report has highlighted the UK's food and drink growth opportunities in developing markets such as China and the United States.
The report looks at the growth opportunities and challenges for the UK food and drink sector for 2020.
It particularly looks at the markets of China, India, Japan, UAE and USA, all of which have seen considerable year-on-year growth.
Researched by the Food and Drink Federation and Santander, it provides analysis of the potential and challenges around each territory together with information for any company considering trading with these harder-to-reach markets.
It comes as figures show exports of UK food and drink during H1 have increased by 5.1 percent (y-o-y) to £11.3bn.
This has largely been driven by growth in the value of exports to non-EU countries (+9.8%), with growth over four times that of exports to the EU.
For example, in China, one of the UK's key upcoming markets, strong economic growth and increasing urbanisation are driving rapid growth in the middle class and with it the purchasing power of its 1.4bn consumers.
While current rapid UK export growth to China is dominated by commodity sales, there is also a significant opportunity to grow sales of premium products, with an emphasis on provenance, quality, health and sustainability.
The top five products exported to China in 2018 were pork (£77m, +11%), whisky (£77m, +25%) and salmon (£73m, +4%).
The US, as the world’s largest economy and third largest population, shares the same language and similar consumer dynamics as the UK - providing ample opportunities for exporters.
Exports to the USA have grown over the past ten years by 147% from £0.9bn in 2008 to £2.2bn in 2018 driven by strong growth in a diverse range of products.
More than half the sales value in 2018 came from whisky exports at £1.1bn, followed by gin and salmon.
The report goes on to highlight other important issues for the industry, including increasing automation.
The recent ‘Made Smarter Review’ highlighted a potential £55.8bn value to the sector over the coming decade through digital technology adoption but pointed out that food and drink lags behind other manufacturing industries.
Sustainable packaging and diet and health are also highlighted in the report as areas where industry is committed to making a difference, working alongside or ahead of government to drive change.
FDF Chief Executive Ian Wright, said: “UK food and drink exports have been a singular success in recent years, achieving strong year-on-year growth.
“But we start from a relatively low base, in that only around one-in-five of our food and drink businesses are exporters.
“In some competitor markets, that proportion is much higher. Encouraging more businesses to overcome their concerns about exporting is a high priority for FDF.
“We are seeking to persuade the government to invest alongside us in more specialist support to help companies take advantage of more export opportunities
“This report focuses in detail on growth through export potential but also touches on the many other opportunities and barriers on key issues impacting our members.”
