Food and drink is the leading industrial sector in EU
A recent United States Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN (Global Agriculture Information Network) report highlighted that the food and drink industry is the 'leading industrial sector in the EU, accounting for 15% of the total production value in the manufacturing sector'. It has a total production value of Euros 593 billion and an added value of Euros 133 billion. In addition the sector is the third largest employer in the EU, employing over 2.6 million people (that is in enterprises employing more than 20 people). The GAIN's profile of the EU foods and drinks industry makes a distinction between 'necessity purchases' and 'luxury purchases'. In the necessity-purchases component of the market price competition is intense, while in the luxury-purchases component quality standards and ethical factors play a more important role then price competitiveness. Comment: The process of CAP reform is explicitly designed to make this EU industry more competitive on both national and international markets. While CAP reform is aiming to strengthen production for the luxury end of the market, the process of reform to date has also had a real impact on the price competitiveness of EU production for the 'necessity-purchases' component of the market. While ACP countries are not a major market for EU food and drink exports, ACP economies will begin to feel the effects of this enhanced price competitiveness on their domestic agri-processing industries in the coming years. These effects could well be exacerbated by any moves towards free trade with the EU, although this will be crucially determined by how these moves towards free trade are structured in the agricultural and food and drinks sector.
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| Format: | News Item biblioteca |
| Language: | English |
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Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation
2002
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/52577 http://agritrade.cta.int/Back-issues/Agriculture-monthly-news-update/2002/December-2002 |
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