Food is, despite the drought and the problems in the countryside, the great Spanish commercial engine. Their exports rose again last year and have accumulated an increase of 40% since before the pandemic, until they have consolidated themselves as the products with the largest trade surplus, above 14,000 million euros in 2023, according to data published this Monday by the Ministry of Economy, Commerce and Business.
“It is a clearly winning sector and the one with the most surplus. It is resilient and capable of accessing new markets through exports,” said the Secretary of State for Commerce, Xiana Méndez, in the presentation of the annual data of the balance of trade. More than two thirds of the food produced in Spain goes to the EU, especially to Germany, Italy, France, the United Kingdom and Portugal.
Last year, this sector went from weighing 16.5% of total exports in 2022 to 17.5%. It surpasses the automotive industry as the leading Spanish foreign activity and has increased its sales abroad year after year since 2010, despite the pandemic. “It has accumulated growth of 40% since 2019, with especially high surpluses in meats, legumes, beverages, preserves and oils,” explained the Secretary of State.
The strength of this activity contributed to Spanish exports reaching 383 billion euros last year. It is 1% less than in 2022, which was a record year, but it is the second best figure of all time, so they are still at unprecedented levels.
“Exports have accumulated a growth of 33% compared to the pre-pandemic and in line with reaching the objective of 400,000 million euros in 2027,” said Méndez. Since 2019, Spain has raised this item more than Germany, which did so by 17%. It also surpasses France, with 20%, or the United States, with 22%. The Secretary of State compared the growth with that of China, of 33%, and assured that Spain also produces 5.9% of the EU’s exports, “the highest figure in its history.”
However, the country continues to have a trade deficit, since imports amounted to 424 billion euros. The positive aspect is that the gap has been reduced by 40% in just one year, because energy, which is by far the main import input, became cheaper compared to the peaks reached a year before, with the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
The trade deficit stood at 40,560 million euros in 2023, compared to 71,604 million a year earlier. It is a substantial reduction, although the final effect depends on what it is compared to. In 2020, with the pandemic and low energy prices, the imbalance was just 13 billion, although in 2007, before the Great Recession, it had exceeded 100 billion.
Méndez has also highlighted the new record of exporting companies. There are 43,918, 1.7% more than a year before. International tenders won by companies in the country rose to 70.62 billion in 2022, the last year with available data, returning to the pre-pandemic level.
For the Secretary of State, “foreign trade is holding up and showing great resilience”, despite the “context of uncertainty and external shocks such as the war in Ukraine, the war in Gaza and the problems in the Red Sea.” For this year, the forecasts of international organizations point to an improvement in foreign trade, which will foreseeably continue to encourage activity, she indicated.
