Information about the food industry

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1. GENERAL INFORMATION

1.1 Description, turnover, growth, employment

The food, drink and milk industry is the leading sector of industrial activity in the EU, with a total production value amounting to EUR 593 billion in 2000. The industry produces both finished products destined for consumption and intermediate products destined for further processing. A sectoral breakdown in the EU shows that for most food, drink and milk product categories production exceeds consumption. Average real annual growth rates of consumption and production are slow; a typical trend of mature markets, e.g. growth during 1997 was less than 2 %. In employment terms, the food-processing sector employs a workforce of 2.7 million. This represents 11 % of the industrial workforce in Europe.

Data of some European countries are presented in the following tables: