NEWS

Strong performance from food and drink sector
By Staff Reporter

THE Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has published its annual report, ‘Size and Performance of the Northern Ireland Food and Drinks Processing Sector’.
One of the key findings is that the value of sales for the sector increased to almost £3 billion last year.
The report provides comprehensive information on the values of sales, exports, value added and number of employees for each of the ten constituent subsectors of the food and drinks processing sector in 2006 and 2007.
These key statistics are supplemented with fifteen performance indicators for each subsector. Provisional estimates of sales and employment are provided for 2008.
In addition to the report, time-series data covering the period 1989-2007 (2008 where available) are published on the DARD website for each of the main size and performance indicators. These will enable users to consider trends in variables of interest.
The value of sales for the sector increased from £2,595 million in 2006 to £2,799 million in 2007. Provisional estimates suggest that total sales increased to £2,975 million in 2008.
In 2007, the food and drinks processing sector contributed approximately 1.9 per cent of Northern Ireland’s total gross value added. It accounted for 19.3 per cent of total manufacturing sales, 16.6 per cent of manufacturing external sales and 22.2 per cent of manufacturing employment in 2007.


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