SCOTTISH food exports fell by more than 10% to £1.04 billion last year, from £1.16bn in 2011, reflecting partly a fall in sales of fish to Spain and France.
The drop is revealed in figures published yesterday by taxpayer-funded trade promotion agency Scottish Development International (SDI).
The fall in Scottish food exports in 2012 took them back to slightly below the £1.06bn total for 2010.
However, Scottish food exports last year were the third highest on record, exceeded only by the 2010 and 2011 figures.
A spokeswoman for SDI highlighted the importance of movements in overseas sales of salmon in the context of the overall change in Scottish food exports.
She said: “Salmon makes up a really big element of the food export figures.”
Scotland’s overseas sales of fish totalled £591m in 2012 – significantly more than half of the country’s £1.04bn food exports total.
Scottish exports of fish to France dropped from £225.5m in 2011 to £188.8m last year, the figures compiled by SDI show.
And Scotland’s exports of fish to Spain fell from £68.7m in 2011 to £52.1m in 2012.
William Gray, head of food and drink at SDI, highlighted difficult market conditions in some countries in mainland Europe. More than 70% of Scottish food exports go to countries in the European Union.
Mr Gray, highlighting the fall last year in exports of fish to France and Spain, said: “Markets like Spain are really difficult at the moment with the eurozone issues, and similarly with France.”
Highlighting a drive by SDI to encourage Scottish food producers to target a wider range of overseas marketplaces, Mr Gray added: “We have other markets we are pro-actively targeting to try to counter-balance that.
“There will always be markets that will go down significantly, or slightly, and you will get markets that go up significantly, or slightly. Always you hope there will be a positive [overall] movement at the end of the year.”
Mr Gray described the opportunities to supply seafood to Japan and China as “exciting”.
He highlighted as an example the success of Wester Ross Salmon in supplying fish for sushi in Japan. Mr Gray also flagged the success of Scottish Deli in supplying live lobsters to Japan.
The SDI figures showed Scottish exports of fish to Japan rose from £2.79m in 2011 to £3.55m last year.
Scottish exports of fish to China fell from £23.7m in 2011 to £18.3m last year.
The Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation (SSPO) published figures last week, showing UK exports of fresh salmon fell 4% to 78,086 tonnes last year.
The SSPO emphasised the 2012 figure was nevertheless the second-highest annual figure on record and 16% ahead of the 67,117 tonnes of overseas sales recorded in 2010.
The SSPO said that because of a “strategic focus” by the industry, exports to the Far East had risen about 64% to 9799 tonnes in 2012.
Mr Gray highlighted continuing strong demand from Germany for Scottish beef and lamb. The SDI figures show exports of live animals to Germany rose from £3.95m in 2011 to £4.99m last year.
Exports of meat to Germany increased from £2.82m to £2.84m.
There was also a rise in exports of fish to Germany from £31.9m in 2011 to £49.5m last year.
SDI highlighted its continuing drive to push overseas sales of Scottish food through promotions in supermarkets in export markets. It highlighted recent promotional campaigns in the Ole supermarket chain in China and the upmarket Alosra chain in Bahrain.
SDI said: “Both of these promotions have been hailed as a success by the supermarkets and SDI field teams are now in discussions regarding similar promotions with other supermarkets.”
The Scotch Whisky Association published figures earlier this month showing that the value of exports of Scotch rose by 1% last year to a record £4.27bn.
Anne MacColl, chief executive of SDI, said: “The intelligence coming from our overseas field teams tells us that the international appetite for Scottish produce remains very strong.”
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