Baltic Export, Baltic States – CIS, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Foodstuff, Good for Business, Markets and Companies

In food production, 37% of production was exported, and this percentage is growing year by year. The largest share of the sector's export is formed by dairy products, which accounted for 30% of the total sector exports. The most important export partner was Finland, where more than one-fifth of the production was sold. Among major trading partners, exports increased to Lithuania, Germany and Russia by about 20%.

The food industry consists of two major sectors: food products production and beverages production. 2013 proved to be successful for the food industry while beverages production growth remained modest due to the weakness in export markets. However, sales in the domestic market grew by 8% in the production of beverages, which was slightly faster than the growth of the food industry.

In the food industry, the dairy industry has the biggest hare; its sales volumes grew by 6% and production volumes in constant prices by 4%. Although production volumes increased, efficiency of the sector decreased. Total profit decreased by more than a third and productivity per employee decreased by more than 10%, dropping below the Estonian average.

Meat industry production volumes declined by nearly 3%, but sales rose slightly more than 1%. In meat industry, labour productivity continued to rise and productivity per employee increased by slightly more than a tenth.

Beverages industry sales grew by 5%. At the same time, production volume at constant prices declined by as much as 3.5%. The main problem was the weakness of the foreign markets. Export volumes declined by about 4%. Total exports of the beverage industry amounted to more than 50 million euros and Finland became the biggest target market, where sales increased by nearly 60%.

Food and beverages producers invested in fixed assets in 2013 by nearly a tenth less than the year before. More than half of the investments were made in machinery and equipment. Nearly one-fifth of the total investments were made by beverage manufacturers.