Food and drink trade deficit shrinks
It appears that the domestic food industry has found in exports the ideal way to offset its losses at home. In 2015 the country’s food and drink trade deficit reached its lowest point since 2010, not only because imports dropped but also due to the considerable increase in exports of fresh as well as manufactured food after 2010.
The annual survey of the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE) concerning the Greek food and drink industry showed that the trade deficit shrank to 1.4 billion euros in 2015 from 2.1 billion in 2014, which constitutes a decline of about 33 percent.
This has come about through the increase in exports to almost 3 billion euros, from 2.4 billion in 2014, and the drop in food and drink imports to 4.36 billion from 4.5 billion euros in 2014. Compared with 2010, the reduction of the trade deficit in the sector is even greater, amounting to 41 percent. In 2010 exports had amounted to almost 2 billion euros and imports had come to 4.49 billion.
IOBE data also showed that manufactured food exports now account for more than two-thirds of outgoing food and drink look likely to rise further. The biggest deficit was recorded in processed meat, amounting to 944 million euros in 2015.
