Documentation of Foreign trade in agri-food products Statistics

General description of the statistics

The statistics on foreign trade in agri-food products include the volumes and values of the imports and exports of all goods included in codes 1–24 of the EU Combined Nomenclature (CN). In addition, the statistics include certain sugar products and modified starches included in CN codes 29, 35 and 39. The statistics include information about the volumes and values of goods. Product values are nominal values.

Classifications

The product groups used in the statistics on foreign trade in agri-food products are based on the EU CN. The conversion of CN into the product groups used in the statistics on foreign trade in agri-food products is presented in the table. Import and export volumes are presented in the form of product weight.

The country classification follows the classification used by Finnish Customs. Finland’s foreign trade has been divided between nine regions: Europe, North Africa, other African countries, Middle East, the rest of Asia, North America, Central America, South America, and Oceania. Europe has been divided into EU Member States (EU 28) and other European countries. The encrypted country-specific volumes and values included in the foreign trade statistics of Finnish Customs have been combined into the “country information encrypted” group in the country classification used in the statistics on foreign trade in agri-food products.

Coverage

As a rule, all goods exported from Finland and imported into Finland are included in the statistics. To be included in the statistics, goods must be physically imported or exported. The statistics do not include transiting or financial measures that have no significant commercial value. In addition, service trade is excluded from the statistics.

Statistical concepts and definitions

The country of origin of goods is the country in which the goods were manufactured, or in which the most recent financially significant part of manufacturing took place. The packaging of goods is not regarded as manufacturing. The export destination country is the country known on the export date to which the goods are to be exported from Finland directly or through another country.

In the foreign trade statistics, tax-exempt sales prices are used as statistical values in the export of goods, including insurance and freight costs up to the Finnish border (free on board, FOB). The statistical value in the import of goods is the taxation value used as the basis for calculating value added tax, from which all taxes levied during importing into Finland are deducted. The statistical value in the import of goods includes insurance and freight costs up to the first border-crossing point on the Finnish border (cost, insurance and freight, CIF).

Statistical unit

All parties engaged in foreign trade and obligated to report information are within the scope of the collection of data on trade between the EU Member States. From 2019, the limit for the obligation to report information has been EUR 600,000 for both the import and export value.

Population of the statistics

The statistics cover the volumes and values of the imports and exports of all goods included in codes 1–24 of the EU CN. In addition, the statistics include certain sugar products and modified starches included in CN codes 29, 35 and 39.

Measuring unit 

Imports and exports of agri-food products per month are presented in millions of euros.

The volumes of imported and exported meat, milk and dairy products, cereals, special crops and potatoes, as well as fruit, berries and vegetables, are presented in millions of kilograms and millions of euros.

Reference period

One month

Frequency of disseminations

The figures presented in Luke’s statistics on foreign trade in agri-food products are preliminary, and they are updated once a year as final figures.

The statistics are compiled pursuant to the Act on the Natural Resources Institute Finland (561/2014), the act on food and natural resource statistics (562/2014), the Customs Act (304/2016) and the Statistics Act (280/2004). In the EU legislation, the compilation of statistics is governed by the regulation on European statistics (EC, 638/2004), the regulation on European statistics on international trade in goods (EC, 471/1995) and rules of application for the implementation of these. The country classification used in the statistics is based on the Commission Regulation (EC, 1106/2012) on Community statistics relating to external trade with non-member countries concerning the update of the nomenclature of countries and territories.

More information: Statistics legislation

Quality assurance

In compiling statistics, the National Resources Institute Finland (Luke) complies with the Code of Practice (CoP) for European statistics and the Quality Assurance Framework (QAF) based on it. The CoP concerns the independence and liability obligation of statistical authorities and the quality of processes and published information. Its principles are compatible with the principles of official statistics approved by the UK Statistical Commission and supplement them. In addition, the quality criteria set for the Official Statistics of Finland are compatible with the CoP. Its principles are also compatible with the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM).

Statistics Finland audits Luke’s statistics annually, and these audits partly verify the quality of the statistics.

Quality evaluation

The statistics ensure that the data, which have already been examined and validated by Finnish Customs, have undergone reliability checks, and have been transferred to the statistical database through the Finnish Customs interface, correspond to the original data. 

More information: Privacy policy – Statistics

The disseminations of the Natural Resources Institute Finland are published online on weekdays at 9:00.  Data is public after it has been published on the website.

Release calendar

The publication dates are confirmed in autumn together with the action plans. The release calendar of the following year is published for users in the end of the year. The release calendar holds data on the dates of future publications. The calendar also contains direct links to already published statistical publication.

Release calendar access

Statistical releases calendar | Natural Resources Institute Finland

Quality assurance

In compiling statistics, the National Resources Institute Finland (Luke) complies with the Code of Practice (CoP) for European statistics and the Quality Assurance Framework (QAF) based on it. The CoP concerns the independence and liability obligation of statistical authorities and the quality of processes and published information. Its principles are compatible with the principles of official statistics approved by the UK Statistical Commission and supplement them. In addition, the quality criteria set for the Official Statistics of Finland are compatible with the CoP. Its principles are also compatible with the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM).

Quality evaluation

The statistics ensure that the data, which have already been examined and validated by Finnish Customs, have undergone reliability checks, and have been transferred to the statistical database through the Finnish Customs interface, correspond to the original data. 

Accuracy and reliability in general

Finnish Customs collects data on trade in the European Single Market from companies that exceed the threshold value set for the obligation to report information. Companies prepare a monthly Intrastat notification regarding their trade in the European Single Market. Trade falling below the threshold value is estimated separately and added to the foreign trade statistics without any country- and goods-specific itemisation. Finland’s foreign trade is very comprehensively registered based on customs declarations.

The most significant errors in foreign trade statistics result from any incomplete or incorrect data reported to Finnish Customs. Finnish Customs verifies all data sent to it before their publication. Validity and reliability checks are conducted in the validation process. Statistical data on trade in the European Single Market are also verified by comparing them with VAT data.  Finnish Customs can correct any errors detected before the final data for the year in question are published. However, only minor changes have usually been required after the publication date.

The country of origin of goods is the country in which the goods were manufactured or in which the most recent financially significant part of manufacturing took place. The country of departure may be incorrectly reported as the country of origin.

Timeliness

Luke publishes the statistics on foreign trade in agri-food products on a monthly basis. The information included in the monthly statistics is preliminary and is collected from the ULJAS database of Finnish Customs on the information publication date. The monthly statistics are completed approximately ten weeks after the end of the statistical month. The information included in the monthly statistics is specified in Luke’s statistical database when the following monthly statistics are compiled.

Luke updates the information included in the monthly statistics on foreign trade in agri-food products to be final once a year, in September–October after Finnish Customs has published its final information. The final information for all months is updated at the same time. 

Preliminary annual statistics are published in March–April, and final annual statistics are published in September–October, after Finnish Customs has published its final information for the previous year.

Chronological comparability

The CN is updated annually, which makes it more difficult to generate a harmonised time series for certain goods. While these changes in the CN do not usually cause changes in the product group classification used in the statistics on foreign trade in agri-food products, the codes used within product groups or their definitions may have been changed.

When examining changes in the unit values of products, it should be noted that a change in a unit value may also result from a structural variation in importing or exporting regarding certain goods.

The threshold value set for the obligation to report information has slowly increased:

Threshold value, EUR

Uniformity across statistical areas

The dataset used in the statistics on foreign trade in agri-food products is obtained from Finnish Customs, and it is the same as Finnish Customs uses in its foreign trade statistics.

Source data

Foreign trade statistics of Finnish Customs

Frequency of data collection

Monthly

Data collection

The foreign trade statistics describe the trade of products between Finland and other countries. The customs are a statistics authority, and enterprises engaged in foreign trade have a duty to provide the customs with data on their activities. The Finnish Customs compiles national foreign trade statistics including all product groups based on collected data. The Natural Resources Institute Finland compiles statistics on foreign trade in agri-food products products from the ULJAS-database maintained by the Finnish Customs. Finnish foreign trade is recorded in this database according to the combined nomenclature (uljas.tulli.fi) The combined nomenclature is presented in more detail on the Customs Finland webpage.

Comments

Encryption

The encrypted country-specific volumes and values included in the foreign trade statistics of Finnish Customs have been combined into the “country information encrypted” group in the country classification used in the statistics on foreign trade in agri-food products. To this end, the volumes and values of the CN codes included in the product group classifications have been summed up at a CN8 code level in the foreign trade statistics of Finnish Customs. No information is missing from the values included in the “all countries total” classification of Finnish Customs. Once the sum of all individual countries’ values has been deducted, the result is the value of the “country information encrypted” group. The missing encrypted country-specific information is presented as zero in the statistics on foreign trade in agri-food products so that country-specific information can be summed up, and the correct total amount can be calculated.

The sums of the “all countries total” classification of Finnish Customs may include encrypted information, which means that the total sum is not published. In these cases, certain sums are excluded from the statistics. However, the missing amounts are not significant given the accuracy of the statistics.

Annually, missing encrypted country-specific information only involves certain CN8 codes, and its presentation as zero and as a separate classification does not significantly reduce the accuracy of the statistics.