My Best Sea: The UK exports record amount of food and drink in 2020

Surging sales of salmon helped the UK to export a record amount of drinks, food and agricultural products in the first quarter of 2020. This information was presented by the Food and Drink Federation of the UK during the spring meeting.

According to the statistics, British food and drink exports as a whole grew by 8.3% year-on-year to £4.9bn - the largest first quarter figure on record.

The rise in the value of UK salmon sales is thanks in part to rising global demand for the fish, crustaceans and aquatic invertebrates, that has been hard to meet due to widespread lice infestations that have hampered production. That has led to higher prices for salmon across the board. The weakness of sterling has also helped to make the UK salmon less expensive than salmon from Chile and Norway.

British wine exports saw the greatest growth by volume, climbing 13.8%, while the value of the UK's cheese exports jumped 29.1% to £145.3m, thanks in part to a spike in sales to France.

The UK gained its place on the international market due to the following 10 products:

1. Whisky