Food, beverages and tobacco kept their position as Italy's largest export category to the United Kingdom in 2025, worth €4.56 billion — 16.9% of all Italian exports to Britain.

The figure comes from the Economic Observatory of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI), updated in June 2026. It shows the category has held the top spot even as Italian suppliers continue to work through post-Brexit customs and regulatory friction.

The bilateral trade relationship itself remains heavily tilted toward Rome. Total trade between Italy and the UK reached €34.5 billion in 2025. Italian exports accounted for €26.99 billion of that, against €7.5 billion of imports flowing from the UK into Italy — a gap of roughly €19.5 billion in Italy's favor. For Italian food producers, the UK is not a marginal market; it is the single largest destination by product category.

Rankings underline the stakes on both sides. The UK was Italy's sixth-largest export market in the first quarter of 2026, taking 4% of total Italian exports. In the other direction, Italy ranked as the UK's seventh-largest supplier, holding a 3.3% share of the UK import market. That share faces sustained pressure: Germany and France remain strong competitors in the UK's food and beverage import channels, and both hold larger overall positions as UK suppliers.

For UK distributors and wholesalers of Mediterranean and specialty foods, the numbers point to a supply base that has kept shipping despite the added cost and administrative burden that followed Brexit. Italian suppliers have absorbed customs checks, labeling changes and documentation requirements without losing volume in their most important product vertical.

Policy machinery is following the trade flows. Initiatives such as OpportunItaly have been created to strengthen commercial relationships between Italian suppliers and UK buyers, matching producers with importers and distributors on the British side of the channel.

What the data does not yet show is margin. The MAECI figures measure export value, not the profitability of individual shipments, and higher logistics and compliance costs since Brexit may have compressed margins for smaller Italian producers even as headline volumes grew. Distributors sourcing from Italy will be watching whether the €4.56 billion category can defend its 16.9% share against German and French competition through 2026.