Made in England ResearchDataset
UK food and drink industry: key facts and figures
The latest official figures on the size of the UK food and drink industry, the jobs it supports, what the UK exports and imports, and what households spend, all sourced to Defra, the ONS and HMRC.
The UK's food and drink industry runs from farms and factories to wholesalers, shops, cafés and restaurants.
Key figures
- £39.3bnadded to the economy by food and drink manufacturing in 2024, up from £26.4bn in 2014 (current prices).
- £328.5bnspent by UK households on food, drink and eating out in 2025, 18.6% of all household spending.
Size of the industry
Gross value added by part of the food and drink chain, UK, 2024, current prices.
- Catering, cafés and restaurants£46.1bn
- Shops and supermarkets£44.1bn
- Food and drink manufacturing£39.3bn
- Wholesale£18.3bn
- Farming£14.5bn
Source: Defra, Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2025, table 14.1a, from the ONS Annual Business Survey. Farming excludes fishing.
Gross value added is the value an industry adds to the economy, roughly its output minus what it buys in. Food and drink manufacturing added £39.3bn in 2024. Catering added the most of any part of the chain, followed by shops and supermarkets.
Jobs
People working in each part of the food and drink chain, Great Britain, 2025, thousands.
- Catering, cafés and restaurants1,953k
- Shops and supermarkets1,079k
- Food and drink manufacturing444k
- Farming394k
- Wholesale232k
Source: Defra, Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2025, table 14.1b, from the ONS Labour Force Survey. Great Britain only: Northern Ireland figures are not available at this level.
Around 4.1 million people work in the food and drink chain, about one in eight of everyone in work in Great Britain. Most work in catering and in shops. Food and drink manufacturing employs 444,000 people, up from 369,000 in 2011.
Exports and imports
Value of UK trade in food, feed and drink, 2000 to 2025, at 2025 prices.
ExportsImports
Source: Defra, Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2025, figure 13.1, from HMRC Overseas Trade Statistics. Adjusted for inflation to 2025 prices.
Download exports and imports, 2000 to 2025 (CSV)
The UK imported £67.8bn of food, feed and drink in 2025 and exported £25.7bn, a gap of £42.1bn. Ireland was the biggest export market, taking 18% of exports, followed by France and the United States.
Biggest export markets, 2025
- Ireland£4.6bn
- France£2.9bn
- United States£2.8bn
- Netherlands£1.7bn
- Germany£1.2bn
- Belgium£0.9bn
- Spain£0.8bn
- China£0.7bn
- Italy£0.5bn
- Poland£0.5bn
Source: Defra, Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2025, figure 13.2.
Exports by type of food, 2015 and 2025
| Type | 2015 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drinks | £10.2bn | £8.2bn | -20% |
| Other food preparations | £2.7bn | £2.6bn | -5% |
| Cereals and cereal products | £2.9bn | £2.5bn | -13% |
| Dairy and eggs | £2.4bn | £2.5bn | +5% |
| Meat | £2.3bn | £2.4bn | +3% |
| Coffee, tea, cocoa and spices | £2.1bn | £2.1bn | -2% |
| Fish | £2.3bn | £2.0bn | -13% |
| Animal feed | £1.3bn | £1.3bn | -5% |
| Fruit and vegetables | £1.5bn | £1.0bn | -37% |
| Oils, fats and oilseeds | £0.9bn | £0.8bn | -10% |
| Sugar and sugar products | £0.6bn | £0.4bn | -32% |
| All food, feed and drink | £29.2bn | £25.7bn | -12% |
Source: Defra, Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2025, table 13.1a. Both years at 2025 prices, so the change is after inflation.
Biggest single exports, 2025
- Whisky£5.4bn
- Cheese£0.97bn
- Salmon, including smoked£0.91bn
- Beef and veal£0.73bn
- Lamb and mutton£0.66bn
- Breakfast cereals£0.51bn
Source: Defra, Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2025, table 13.2, at 2025 prices. Selected commodities only.
What households spend
UK households spent £328.5bn on food, drink and eating out in 2025, 18.6% of all household spending. Of all household spending, 8.4% went on food and soft drinks to eat at home, 8.6% on eating and drinking out, and 1.7% on alcohol bought from shops.
Source: Defra, Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2025, table 14.1d, from ONS Consumer Trends. Current prices.
How these figures are made
Where they come from
Every figure on this page is from Defra's Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2025, published on 9 July 2026, which brings together the ONS Annual Business Survey, the ONS Labour Force Survey, ONS Consumer Trends and HMRC Overseas Trade Statistics. We have not adjusted or combined them, except to round.
Why other sources give different numbers
Trade bodies such as the Food and Drink Federation publish their own figures, which can differ from these because they use different years, definitions or surveys. For example, their employment figure counts people employed by food and drink manufacturers, while Defra's comes from a survey of workers. Both are useful; the figures here are the official series.
Definitions
Gross value added (GVA) is the value of what an industry produces minus the goods and services it uses up. Food, feed and drink trade covers food, drink and animal feed, not tobacco. Trade values are at 2025 prices, adjusted for inflation; GVA and spending are at current prices. Jobs are for Great Britain; everything else is UK-wide. None of these figures are for England alone.
Sources: Defra, Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2025, chapter 14: the food chain (tables 14.1a, 14.1b and 14.1d); chapter 13: overseas trade (figures 13.1 and 13.2, tables 13.1a and 13.2); published data tables.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Related research
How much of its own food does the UK produce? covers self-sufficiency since 1956. Who Feeds Britain? shows where 47 everyday foods are imported from, and food, feed and drink exports by English region breaks exports down by region.
Next update
Defra publishes Agriculture in the United Kingdom each July. We will update this page when the 2026 edition is published.
Suggested citation
Made in England Research, UK food and drink industry: key facts and figures, data to 2025, analysis of Defra, Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2025. https://madeinengland.com/pages/uk-food-and-drink-industry-facts-and-figures