About one in five EU enterprises involved in international trade in goods both import and export, while most trade-only firms import without exporting.
In 2024, 21.3% of EU enterprises engaged in intra-EU and extra-EU trade in goods were “two-way traders” — meaning they both imported and exported — while 70.6% were import-only and 8.1% were export-only, Eurostat informed on Tuesday.
Measured by the value of goods traded, two-way traders accounted for 95.4% of all goods traded, compared with 3.7% for import-only firms and 0.9% for export-only firms.
The highest shares of two-way traders were recorded in manufacturing (43.8%), followed by mining and quarrying (36.8%) and wholesale and retail trade (29.6%).
Big differences by industry
Real estate activities had the lowest share of two-way traders at 7.4%, alongside construction at 8.4% and financial and insurance activities at 10.3%, Eurostat said.
Import-only trading was most common in construction (87.3%), real estate activities (86.5%) and financial and insurance activities (82.4%).
Export-only trading was most common in agriculture, forestry and fishing (19.7%), mining and quarrying (16.7%) and transportation and storage (14.3%).
