Austria’s agricultural exports of foodstuffs and beverages broke the EUR 6 billion barrier for the first time in 2016, and optimism for 2017 is riding high.
Austria’s food industry can look back on 2016’s results with some satisfaction – agricultural exports of produce were up +3.6% on the previous year, crossing the EUR 6 billion barrier for the first time. That means that ‘Made in Austria’ foodstuffs to a value of some EUR 6.2 billion were sent across the country’s borders, and with growth of 7.4% in the first two quarters of 2017, exports are looking very promising this year as well.
This excellent performance is principally due to success on markets beyond Europe, where Austrian exports have risen by 7.6% to a total volume of EUR 1.36 billion. The most important non-European market for the foodstuffs industry remains the USA (EUR 740 million, up +20.9%), and the States also make it to second place overall among Austria’s top food export destinations, just behind Germany (with export volumes of EUR 2.09 million, up +3.9%).
A saturated and fiercely competitive domestic market means that exporting ‘Made in Austria’ foodstuffs has been an essential plank of the industry for years,and this encouraged Austrian producers to seek out export markets at an early stage. Two out of three foodstuffs produced in Austria are sold internationally, with Austrian products available in over 180 international markets – as testified to by the impressive growth of the industry’s export ratio, which has risen from just 16% in 1995 to well over 60% in 2016”.
Source Austrian Trade Commission