Middle East – Gulf countries

Overview

The Gulf Cooperation Council countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – are important markets for EU agricultural exports.

The EU exports mainly:

• cereal preparations 
• cigars and cigarettes
• dairy products 
• odoriferous substances 
• cereals (mainly barley and wheat)
• chocolate and sugar confectionery
• food preparations.

Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) are a major destination for EU exports of barley, particularly to Saudi Arabia.

EU imports from GCC are rather negligible and mainly consist of:

• animal or vegetable oils
• live animals.

Related information

EU-Gulf region trade

Other Middle East countries

The main exported products to other Middle East countries – Iran, Iraq and Yemen – include:

• cigars and cigarettes
• wheat
• cereal preparations
• preparations used in animal feeding
• dairy products
• poultry meat.

The import side is dominated by:

• nuts (mainly pistachios from Iran)
• raw hides and skins
• animal products (unfit for human consumption)
• fresh or dried fruits.

Related information

Agri-food trade with Iran

EU-Iran trade

EU-Iraq trade

Agri-food trade statistics