Agri-food exports in 2021 reached record levels, reaching above 50 billion euros (in 2015 they were just over 30 billion), thanks to growth in value of 15% compared to 2019 and 11% compared to 2020
AGI - "More Italian food on tables around the world. The effect of the pandemic, in the two years between 2020 and 2021, allowed Made in Italy agri-food to increase its presence better than many commercial opponents have done." This is what the incipit of a report in the new issue of the Gambero Rosso economic weekly, "TreBicchieri", dedicated to agrifood, underlines. When thinking back to the incredible blockade of Italian goods at the borders with the explosion of the pandemic in 2020.
The newspaper instead calculates that the world has chosen Made in Italy as a quality product. Superstars of exports were products such as pasta, extra virgin olive oil, cheeses, wine, the latter defined as a "true standard bearer and protagonist" of a performance that led it to total well over 7 billion of Euro.
So much so that the sixth edition of the Agrifood monitor forum promoted by Nomisma with Crif, credit information systems, even speaks of "surprising" performance for the agri-food sector. Especially during 2021, which will be remembered as "an extraordinary year for Italian exports" according to the judgment of Denis Pantini, agri-food manager of Nomisma, in his opinion precisely "thanks to a growth that involved all products, bringing to increases in Italy's market share in many world markets".
In detail, the data say that our beautiful country saw its weight in value increase during 2021 and compared to 2019 within the most important importing countries, going from 15.4% to 16% in Switzerland, from 7, 8% to 8.7% in Germany, from 8.3% to 8.7% in France, from 5.6% to 6.3% in the UK, from 4.4% to 4.7% in Australia, from 3.1% to 3.5% in Russia. The USA is stable (3.5%) while something is lost in the relationship with China, which goes from 2% to 1.9%, especially because the Chinese, who increased imports during the pandemic period by over 45% , they mainly purchased agricultural commodities, which do not represent the Italian core business, which instead consists of transformed and processed products.
But moving from the percentage breakdown to the absolute data, the overall picture is this:agri-food exports in 2021 reached record levels, reaching above 50 billion euros (in 2015 it was just over 30 billion), thanks to a growth in value of 15% compared to 2019 and 11% compared to 2020.
The driving products were wine, cured meats and cheeses. Wine confirms itself as the most exported Italian good, with a share of 14% and a increase in value of 12.7% over 2020 and 10.3% over 2019. Therefore, in agrifood, Italy did better than other important European countries, such as France and Germany, which remained below 10% (with growth respectively of +8% and +4%). Italy, however, takes ninth place for the value of global agri-food exports, in a ranking that sees the USA (148.6 billion), the Netherlands (103.1%), Brazil in the top 5 places (83 billion), Germany (75.4 billion) and France (68.3 billion).
And between 2019 and 2021, those who did better than the Bel Paese were countries such as Canada, Brazil and the USA, which grew by over 20%. Now, however, we are looking with great apprehension at the Russian-Ukrainian front and the ongoing conflict, also because if on the one hand Italy's performance has been excellent, on the other we have indeed increased exports, however companies are seeing their economic margins reduced due to the effect of the increase in costs, mainly energy costs, which grew by approximately five times.
The president of the Scientific Committee of Nomisma and MEP Paolo De Castro declares to the Gambero Rosso economic weekly, regarding the war in Ukraine: "Any sanctions in the agri-food sector in Russia will generate both direct difficulties, such as blockades on exports, and indirect ones, in sense that those countries that will lose an important outlet such as Russia will pour their products into the EU borders".
In any case, now with the war in Ukraine devastating consequences are expected for everyone, especially since the conflict comes after two years of a global pandemic, which has already tested the resistance and economies of all countries.
Source: agi.it