Import, export and production of raw materials and food

You asked

Please provide import, export and production of raw materials and food (raw materials including materials such as steel), on an annual, five year or ten year basis, since records began.

We said

Thank you for your request.

Import and export information of raw materials and food is published by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and can be accessed using the following link;

https://www.uktradeinfo.com/Pages/Home.aspx

Information published by HMRC is on an Overseas Trade Statistics (OTS) basis which provides a detailed picture of the UK's trade in goods by commodity and partner country. Any further requests of this nature may be better placed with HMRC. They can be contacted using the following address;

HMRC FoI Act Team
Room 1C/23 
100 Parliament Street
London
SW1A 2BQ

The scope of your request with regards to the production of food and raw materials is broad. We would suggest using the UK standard industrial classification to refine your scope. The link to this is as follows;

https://www.ons.gov.uk/methodology/classificationsandstandards/ukstandardindustrialclassificationofeconomicactivities/uksic2007

From this, you should hopefully be able to determine what you would interpret raw materials to be for the index of production.

The following link is to the lowest published level of index of production chained volume data which contains data on food manufacturing (section CA) and all other manufactured goods including basic iron and steel (industry 24.1-3) for as far back as we are able to publish;

https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/economicoutputandproductivity/output/datasets/indexofproduction

The results from our Monthly Business Survey may also be of some use to you. This supplies turnover data for use in compiling the indices of production. Once the scope of your request is clearer, you can identify the appropriate data from this link which has published data as far back as possible for the industries concerned;

https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/manufacturingandproductionindustry/datasets/turnoverandordersintheproductionandservicesindustriesdataset

A more complete assessment of turnover (value) is also available through the Annual Business Survey which is able to formulate more detailed data due to the larger sample it uses;

https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/businessservices/datasets/uknonfinancialbusinesseconomyannualbusinesssurveysectionsas

In addition to this, PRODCOM survey is also able to produce more detailed data than we are able to for IoP including some data on the weight of manufactured goods where this is possible for low-level products;

https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/manufacturingandproductionindustry/datasets/ukmanufacturerssalesbyproductprodcom

The Index of Production only considers food production and does not include agriculture. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) data on the UK farming industry is plentiful and the following to the data tables accompanying the 2016 edition may be of interest to you. Tables 4.1 and 4.2 may be helpful in considering the value of production in current prices and in real terms;

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/agriculture-in-the-united-kingdom