Industry Data

The Food and Drink Manufacturing Industry

You may be surprised to hear that the food and drink sector is the UK's biggest manufacturing industry, offering world class capabilities in areas of production, logistics, sales, marketing and innovation.

Here are some other facts about the food and drink manufacturing industry:

• It directly employs 440,000 people and indirectly accounts for a further 1.2 million jobs in the food chain
• There are 7,000 enterprises in the sector generating £72.6bn of turnover
• The industry represents 15% of the UK's manufacturing sector and is the fourth largest food and drink industry in Europe
• It is highly innovative – spending £330m on R&D and launching 8,000 new products every year
• It is a vital export sector – selling products worth more than £9bn a year to overseas customers.

Research carried out by Leatherhead Food International for the Food and Drink Federation in October 2009 showing the UK food and drink export statistics for 2009.

View full report: UK Food and Drink Export Performance - first half 2009 - pdf | 155kb

For more information on the research of the UK Food and Drink Export Performance, visit the Food and Drink Federation website - Export statistics.