UK Food and Drink Exports to EU Fall More Than a Third Since Brexit

British food and drink exports to the European Union have fallen by more than a third since Brexit, according to analysis of official data by the National Farmers' Union. The figures show a sharp contraction in trade with the UK's largest trading partner, with exports down compared with 2019 levels.

The decline is uneven across product categories. Sugar exports to the EU have fallen by 70%, while egg product exports are down 74%, according to the NFU's analysis of the official data. The scale of the falls points to particular pressure on processed and commodity food lines, where the cumulative effect of the post-Brexit trading relationship appears most pronounced.

The EU is the UK's largest trading partner for food and drink, making the bloc the most important destination for British producers. A decline of more than a third in exports to that market represents a significant loss of volume for the sector and underscores the sensitivity of food and drink trade to the border arrangements that have applied since the UK left the EU.

The NFU's findings rest on official trade data, giving the figures a weight beyond industry anecdote. For investors with exposure to UK food and drink producers, processors and agricultural suppliers, the analysis highlights the extent to which EU market access has become a structural constraint on export volumes rather than a temporary disruption. The concentration of the steepest declines in specific categories such as sugar and egg products suggests that the impact is not uniform, and that some parts of the sector have absorbed a far heavier burden than others since 2019.