SCOTTISH manufactured export volumes fell by 0.4 per cent in the third quarter, and overseas sales of the key drinks sector, which includes Scotch whisky, were flat, official figures have shown.
A 15.7 per cent quarter-on-quarter tumble in exports by the metals and metal products sub-sector played a significant part in the overall fall in the Scottish manufacturing sector’s overseas sales during the three months to September.
However, the Scottish Government figures show that food exports leapt by 17.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter during the three months to September. This marked a continuation of the strong performance by Scotland’s food producers since 2013, achieved in the face of challenging economic conditions and pressures arising from sterling strength against the euro.
Exports of the engineering and allied industries rose by 2.4 per cent quarter-on-quarter during the three months to September. This was driven by increases in mechanical engineering and electronics exports. The transport equipment sub-sector of engineering saw its overseas sales fall during the quarter.
Comparing the year to September with the preceding 12 months, Scottish manufactured exports were up by 2.4 per cent.
Willie Rennie, leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, welcomed the surge in food exports but voiced his belief that the lack of growth in drinks exports was “disappointing”.
He said: “New [drinks] producers are popping up everywhere, and the Scottish Government is well aware of what the whisky industry brings to this country.”
Mr Rennie added: “Other countries obviously have a good appetite for tasty Scottish morsels which deserve to be washed down with good Scottish beverages.”
He welcomed the growth in Scottish manufactured exports, comparing the year to September with the preceding 12 months.
Exports of refined petroleum, chemical and pharmaceutical products rose in volume terms by 0.9 per cent quarter-on-quarter in the three months to September.
Comparing the year to September with the preceding 12 months, overseas sales by Scottish food producers were up by 14.3 per cent.
Exports of the engineering and allied industries were up by 1.7 per cent over this timeframe. This rise was driven by increased overseas sales by the transport equipment and electrical and instrument engineering sub-sectors, with mechanical engineering exports falling over this timeframe. The electrical and instrument engineering category takes in the key electronics sector.
Comparing the year to September with the preceding 12 months, the Scottish drinks sector’s exports were down slightly, by 0.4 per cent.
Industry figures published in November showed the value of Scotch whisky exports in the first half of last year, at £1.7 billion, was down by only three per cent on the same period of 2014.
Publishing these figures, the Scotch Whisky Association welcomed a slowing of the rate of decline from the pace seen in the first half of 2014. And Scotch exports remain much higher than they were in the opening years of the new millennium.
The Scottish Government said last week that the economy north of the Border grew by only 0.1 per cent in the third quarter of last year, well adrift of the significantly below-trend expansion rate of 0.4 per cent in the UK as a whole.
This was the second consecutive quarter in which the Scottish economy was close to stagnation, with gross domestic product having grown only 0.1 per cent in the three months to June.
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