The most important category of Greek exports to the United States emerged in 2020 that of food and beverages, surpassing in value the category of industrial products and increasing its share of total exports to the US to 35%, compared to 28% in 2019.
This is according to data from ELSTAT and the US Committee on International Trade prepared by the New York Bureau of Economic and Commercial Affairs, which points out that the increase in the share of food / beverages, despite the huge blow to the US catering industry, is sample of their dynamics and possibilities for further penetration in the American market.
Greece’s main export to the US last year was “vegetables cooked or preserved without vinegar, not frozen”, recording a total export value of 136.3 million euros, compared to 140.38 million euros in 2019, according to ELSTAT data . It is noted that the largest percentage of these exports concerns table olives, a fact that ranks them this year as our most important exported agricultural product to the USA.
Also noteworthy was the increase in the value of cheese products to 30.65 million euros, compared to 27.7 million in 2019, despite the fact that the most important Greek cheese codes were affected by the additional tariffs of the Trump administration. It is alleged that the tariff reclassification of our cheese products, to which many importers resorted, favored the maintenance of high imports.
In terms of olive oil, in 2020 there was a decline in Greek exports, worth 34.9 million euros, compared to 38.85 million euros in 2019. The US data, however, shows stability, with 42 million dollars for 2020, compared to 42 , 9 million for 2019