18-11-2022
Lithuanian food export gains back its previous volumes
According to the State Food and Veterinary Service (SFVS), Lithuanian producers exported more than 180,000 tonnes of food of animal origin to non-EU countries during the last three quarters of this year. An analysis of the data for the last nine months of 2022 shows that the decreasing exports observed at the beginning of the year are slowly reversing, with export volumes almost matching those of the previous year. In the three quarters of 2021, exports amounted to slightly more than 190,000 tonnes.
In percentage terms, the drop in exports of food of animal origin in the first half of 2022 was 14 %, and the sum of the results for the last three quarters shows that exports are only 4 % less than in the same period last year.
Recent export data show an increase in exports of meat, meat products, canned meat, egg products, canned fish and honey during the three quarters of this year.
“The continued narrowing of the gap with exports from previous years shows a positive trend of increasing exports. After the shocks at the beginning of the year, today we already see a stable recovery, to which the newly opened markets are likely to have contributed. At the beginning of September, we managed to finalise all issues and have the export of egg products to the US approved. Furthermore, egg products can now be exported to the South African market. In the middle of autumn, we had even more good news for Lithuanian exporters. In a relatively short period of time, we managed to harmonise and open up the Taiwan market to producers of egg, dairy and fish products, and the opening of new markets will hopefully soon be reflected in the export figures for the coming months,” says Mantas Staškevičius, the Director of the SFVS, reviewing the data for the last three quarters of this year.
In total, almost 10,000 tonnes of meat have already been shipped this year (last year exports only slightly exceeded 9,000 tonnes). Poultry amounted for the largest share of meat exports, which was about 8,000 tonnes. In 2021, poultry exporters shipped more than 6,000 tonnes of their production in the same period. The growth was also reflected in pork exports with around 500 tonnes in the first three quarters of the year, compared to only around 300 tonnes in the same period last year. The main countries importing Lithuanian poultry were Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam, while the main countries importing pork were Ukraine, Norway and Côte d’Ivoire.
This year, almost 2,000 tonnes of meat products have been exported, which is almost 770 tonnes more than last year. Comparing to the same period last year, there is also a change in the markets: the largest volume of meat products this year, over 900 tonnes, was shipped to North Macedonia, while last year Macedonia imported just over 100 tonnes of meat products. Japan, the United States and Tajikistan remain important markets for meat products.
A rather pronounced change is visible in the export of egg products. In the first three quarters of this year, almost 400 tonnes of egg products were shipped, which is 127 tonnes more than last year. The main market for egg products this year was Hong Kong, accounting for almost all the export production of over 300 tonnes.
In terms of exports, the largest exports were made by producers of fishery products, with almost 90000 tonnes of production. The exports were only 1% lower than at the same time last year, but exports of canned fish increased. This year’s exports of canned fish were twice as high as last year—over 100 tonnes. The dairy sector also continues to be among the largest exporters. This year, about 80,000 tonnes of milk and dairy products were exported. Although the total amount of exported dairy products was 9 % lower than in 2021, exports of Lithuanian dairy products grew — this year almost 25,000 tonnes of Lithuanian cheese (3,000 tonnes more than last year), more than 2,000 tonnes of butter (i.e., 1,200 tonnes more than in 2021) and 12,000 tonnes of cheese products (250 tonnes more than in the same period last year) were exported. This year, most dairy products were shipped to Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Israel, Malaysia and Morocco.
Honey and honey product exports amount to 1,5 tonnes this year. In the first three quarters of 2021, their exports were slightly lower at around 1,3 tonnes.
Negotiations are currently underway to open the Taiwanese market to beef and the South Korean market to Lithuanian poultry. Moreover, export permits for Lithuanian poultry, eggs and egg products are also being negotiated with Singapore and export permits for beef and egg products are being negotiated with Vietnam.