Spanish exports from agri-food and fisheries sector rose by 2.7% from April to December 2020

This can be gleaned from the "COVID-Foreign Trade Report, situation of the agri-food and fisheries sector", which analyses the effects of the pandemic on this sector in the months following the first declaration of the state of emergency, between the months of April and December 2020, and their comparison with the same period the previous year, using the data available.

The increase in agri-food exports contrasts with the export data as a whole of all the sectors of the economy in the same period, which stood at 192.73 billion euros, a drop of 11.8% on the previous year.

For their part, imports from the agri-food, fisheries and forestry sector dropped by 8%, from 29.42 billion euros to 27.05 billion euros. The resulting balance rose by 33% to the figure of 13.95 billion euros.

The graph above compares the behaviour of exports from April to December 2020 between all the economic sectors and the agri-food, fisheries and forestry sector. The data clearly show that the economy as a whole has been more affected by the pandemic than the agri-food sector.

Main groups

During the period analysed, exports have increased in practically all the groups of the agri-food sector. The groups that experienced the largest rises are "Animal feed" (up 21%), "Meat" (up 12.2%), "Meat and fish preparations" (up 11.9%) and "Cereals" (up 10.3%). In economic terms, the largest increase corresponds to "Meat", with close to a 700-million euro rise compared with the same period of the previous year.

The main export groups have been "Fruit and dried fruit and nuts", followed by "Meat", "Vegetables and pulses", "Drinks" and "Oils and fats", groups which coincide with the same order of prevalence as in the same period of 2019.

Ranking of the five main export groups during the cumulative period April to September.

Meanwhile, imports have fallen in all groups, except "Oils and fats", which rose by 16.5% and "Animal feed" (up 5.8%).

The following tables contain the ranking of the 10 main products exported and imported during the period of reference. No major changes are recorded in the ranking, although the increase in almost 600-million euros in the export of pork and the decrease in more than 200 million euros in the import of shellfish and corn are noteworthy.

Ranking of 10 main products exported during the cumulative period April to December.

Ranking of 10 main products imported during the cumulative period April to December.

Non official translation