Queen’s Jubilee sparks UK food and drink spike

24-Jun-2012 - Last updated on 29-Jun-2012 at 20:31 GMT

Related tags Republic of ireland Alcoholic beverage

The Diamond Jubilee has sparked global interest in UK food and drink brands

America and China have been leading an overseas rush to buy British food and drink, in the wake of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, according to one website.

There has been a spike in worldwide demand for British food and drinks, such as biscuits, tea and beer, says alibaba.com.

Global searches for Diamond Jubilee goods including food and drink have grown by 2,450 % year-on-year (April 2012 v April 2011). There has also been a 327% increase quarter-on-quarter in the first three months of this year compared with the same period of 2011.

The website, through which small UK businesses can sell overseas, says 35% of hits come from the US, some 18% of searches were from China, 7% from India and 7% from Canada.

Biscuits and cakes

Biscuits, cakes, pastry, whisky, beer and vodka and tea were among the most popular food and drink search terms.

There was an increase of 321% in global searches for Queen Elizabeth-related paraphernalia year on year (April 2012 vs. April 2011) and 28% rise quarter on quarter (Q1 2012 v Q4 2011).

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs reports that the most popular destination for UK food and drink exports was the Republic of Ireland. Exports across the Irish Sea were valued at £2,692M a year.

Food and drink exports to France were valued at £1,925M, while exports to the US totalled £1,239M, Germany £1,032M and Spain £963M.