Imports of food and live animals reached over €3.53 billion from January to April this year, new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show.

This is down compared to the same time period in 2025, where imports were valued at over €3.61 billion.

In April 2026, imports of food and the live animals were valued at €938 million, up from €929 in April 2025.

From January to April this year, Ireland imported €84 million of live animals, down from €97 million last year.

Meat and dairy

Imports of meat and meat preparations reached €458 million, up from €430 million in the same period in 2025.

€355 million of dairy products and birds' eggs were imported in the first four months of the year, down from €430 million last year.

€599 million of cereals and cereal preparations were imported from January to April, down from €650 million in 2025.

Imports of food and live animals from Great Britain totalled €833 million from January to April, while from Northern Ireland, the figure was over €524 million.

Exports

From January to April 2026, exports of food and live animals totalled over €5.12 billion, down from €5.21 billion in 2025.

In April alone, exports hit €1.43 billion.

From January to April, exports of live animals increased to €287 million from €260 million last year.

Exports of meat and meat preparations increased to over €1.72 billion, while exports of dairy products and birds' eggs decreased to over €1.21 billion.

CSO goods exports and imports

Overall, the value of exported goods for April 2026 was €18.5 billion, a decrease of €2.8 billion (-13.2%) compared with April 2025 (€21.3 billion), the CSO said.

The value of goods imports increased by €2.4 billion (+22%) to €13.2 billion in April 2026 compared with April 2025 (€10.8 billion).

Both seasonally adjusted exports and imports of goods rose in April 2026 compared with March 2026 with exports increasing by €1.5 billion (+8.9%) to €18.2 billion and imports up by €238.9 million (+1.8%) to €13.3 billion.

Exports to the US fell by €4.2 billion (-45.1%) to €5.1 billion in April 2026 compared with April 2025 (€9.4 billion).

Exports to Great Britain grew by €645.1 million (+51.7%) to €1.9 billion in April 2026 compared with April 2025 (€1.2 billion).

Jane Burmanje, statistician in the CSO's international trade in goods division, said the main driver of exports to Great Britain "was a rise in exports of goods related to machinery and transport equipment which more than doubled to €724.2 million in April 2026 compared with April 2025 (€236.1 million)".