Great Britain is still the biggest market for Northern Ireland food and drink industry. Overall, the industry saw a £2.6 percent rise in total sales in 2017 to £4.5billion. The report reveals a strengthening food and drink processing sector last year.

Northern Ireland’s Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) has reported that the value of produce for Great Britain increased to £2.2billion in 2016, accounting for just over 50 percent of the £4.5billion total sales that year.

The ‘Size and Performance of the Northern Ireland Food and Drinks Processing Sector, Subsector Statistics’ study also found that the Republic of Ireland is the most important export destination for the region’s food and drink.

Food and drink sales to the Republic accounted for £646million in 2016, which amounted to 15 percent of total sales.  Employment increased four percent from 20,555 to 22,413 full-time workers. The figure is estimated to increase 4.8 percent for 2017 to 23,479 full-time employees.

The proportion of external sales (sales to all markets outside of Northern Ireland) increased from 74.2 per cent to 75.6 per cent of total sales between 2015 and 2016. The value of these sales increased from £3,277million to £3,30million in 2016.

Between 2015 and 2016, the level of export sales (sales to markets outside of the United Kingdom) as a proportion of total sales declined from 26.7 percent to 25.4 percent.

The value of these export sales fell from £1,178million in 2015 to £1,108 million in 2016. The value of export sales was higher than that of the domestic Northern Ireland market in both 2015 and 2016.

The Republic of Ireland, which continues to be the largest export market with sales of £645.8million in 2016. The market share of total sales increased from 14.1 per cent in 2015 to 14.8 per cent in 2016.

After the total value of sales in Northern Ireland dipped from £4.415billion in 2015 to £4.365billion in 2016, provisional figures for last year show that the sector had increased £113million in turnover, bringing it to just under £4.5billion.

Beef, lamb, milk and milk products represented the largest subsectors for gross turnover in both 2015 and 2016. Together they account for 48 percent and 49 percent respectively of the sector’s total gross turnover.