NI food and drink industry makes gains

Northern Ireland’s food and drink industry grew by seven per cent in 2013, new figures have revealed.

Despite local dairy farmers facing an income crisis over milk prices, the latest industry report has shown NI’s food and drink sector is worth around £4,510m per year, with sales continuing to rise.

The Department of Agriculture report also contains positive provisional figures for 2014, suggesting a further rise of 5.4 per cent.

Between 2013 and 2014, all ten subsectors in the food and drinks processing sector experienced an increase in their gross turnover.

The largest increases are estimated by the department to have occurred in the milk and milk products sector, the value of which rose by £117.7m. Those figures however predate the recent crisis, which has been exacerbated by the end of a European milk production quota.

Beef and sheepmeat saw a £79.6m increase.

The number of direct full-time employees is estimated to have increased by two per cent from 21,354 in 2013 to 21,783 in 2014.

Great Britain continues to be the largest outlet for the Northern Ireland food and drinks processing sector, where sales increased by £239 million in 2012 to £1,941 million in 2013.

The Republic continues to be the largest export market, where recorded sales increased by 1.4 per cent in 2012 to £705 million in 2013.