The relative importance of the UK market can be seen by looking at the share of exports and imports with the UK compared to the rest of the world.
The Wholesale/Retail sector with a UK market share of 39% in 2016 had the highest share of its total exports going to the UK. The pharmaceutical sector had the lowest with only 5% of exports going to the UK.
| Sector | UK | Rest of World |
|---|---|---|
| Agri/food | 20 | 80 |
| Pharmaceuticals | 5 | 95 |
| Other manufacturing and construction | 11 | 89 |
| Wholesale/retail | 39 | 61 |
| Services/other | 19 | 81 |
| Unknown | 16 | 84 |
The UK was also the largest import market for the Wholesale/Retail sector, just under 50% of the value of this sector’s total imports came from the UK. The Agri/Food sector followed closely and imported 46% of its goods from the UK. The pharmaceutical sector had the lowest share of imports from the UK at only 6%.
| Sector | UK | Rest of World |
|---|---|---|
| Agri/food | 46 | 54 |
| Pharmaceuticals | 6 | 94 |
| Other manufacturing and construction | 22 | 78 |
| Wholesale/retail | 49 | 51 |
| Services/other | 13 | 87 |
| Unknown | 35 | 65 |
| Table 4.1 Exports and Imports by region | |||||||
| Sector | Exports | Imports | |||||
| €million | €million | ||||||
| UK | Rest of World | Total | UK | Rest of World | Total | ||
| Agri/food | 3,490 | 13,730 | 17,220 | 1,463 | 1,714 | 3,177 | |
| Pharmaceuticals | 2,752 | 49,285 | 52,038 | 531 | 8,738 | 9,269 | |
| Other manufacturing and construction | 3,340 | 26,242 | 29,581 | 2,652 | 9,682 | 12,335 | |
| Wholesale/retail | 3,236 | 5,116 | 8,352 | 12,137 | 12,418 | 24,555 | |
| Services/other | 1,681 | 7,097 | 8,778 | 2,772 | 18,329 | 21,101 | |
| Unknown | 352 | 1,909 | 2,260 | 961 | 1,806 | 2,767 | |
| Total | 14,851 | 103,379 | 118,230 | 20,515 | 52,688 | 73,204 | |
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