NI food and drinks sector turnover increases to £5.2 billion
The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) in Northern Ireland has published its annual ‘Northern Ireland Food and Drinks Processing Report’ which shows a total estimated gross turnover of £5.4 billion.
This represents an increase of 0.9% for the sector in 2020 and provisional estimates for 2021 project a 6.4% increase to £5.8 billion.
The report was previously known as ‘Size and Performance of the Northern Ireland Food and Drinks Processing Sector, Subsector Statistics’.
It contains comprehensive data on the values of sales, value added, number of employees and destination of sales for each of the 10 constituent subsectors of the food and drinks processing sector for 2019 and 2020.
These key statistics are supplemented with 15 performance indicators for each subsector. Provisional estimates of sales and employment are also provided for 2021.
| Gross turnover (£ m) 2019 | Gross turnover (£ m) 2020 | Difference (£ m) | % change 2019/2020 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Animal byproducts | 45.1 | 48.4 | 3.3 | 7.3 |
| Bakeries | 404.7 | 441.9 | 37.2 | 9.2 |
| Beef and sheepmeat | 1,395.0 | 1,469.6 | 74.6 | 5.3 |
| Drinks | 448.5 | 421.7 | -26.8 | -6.0 |
| Eggs | 189.8 | 189.7 | -0.1 | -0.1 |
| Fish | 95.4 | 89.8 | -5.5 | -5.8 |
| Fruit and vegetables | 398.2 | 416.1 | 17.9 | 4.5 |
| Milk and milk products | 1,227.4 | 1,186.9 | -40.5 | -3.3 |
| Pigmeat | 400.6 | 453.5 | 53.0 | 13.2 |
| Poultry meat | 771.0 | 705.9 | -65.0 | -8.4 |
| Total sector | 5,375.6 | 5,423.6 | 47.9 | 0.9 |
Only data for firms with a minimum business turnover of £250,000 are included in the report because of the difficulty in accessing detailed accounting information for small businesses.
Other key findings in the report are:
The largest export market continues to be Ireland, which recorded a 1.5% increase in sales from £862 million in 2019 to £875 million in 2020. Ireland accounted for 16.1% of the total sales in the food and drinks processing sector in 2020, an increase of 0.1%.
The statistics within the report assist businesses with benchmarking, and provide context for the government when preparing food and farming strategies for Northern Ireland.
