A man with a helmet looks up at some cardboard boxes.

In 2023, 21.7% of EU enterprises engaged in international (both intra-EU and extra-EU) trade in goods were two-way traders, while 70.0% were only importers and the remaining 8.3% were only exporters.

In terms of value, two-way traders accounted for the vast majority (95.3%) of all goods traded, ahead of enterprises that only import (3.9%) and those that only export (0.8%).

Trade by type of trader and economic activity in the EU, 2023. Pie chart - Click below to see full dataset.

Source dataset: ext_tec06

The highest shares of two-way EU traders were recorded for manufacturing (45.6%), followed by mining and quarrying (39.2%) and water supply (29.9%). Real estate activities (7.3%), construction (8.6%) and financial and insurance activities (10.4%) had the lowest shares of enterprises engaged in two-way trading. 

On the other hand, the highest shares of enterprises that only import were found in construction (86.8%), real estate activities (86.2%) and financial and insurance activities (82.3%). The lowest shares were found in mining and quarrying (41.0%), manufacturing (42.4%) and water supply (56.3%).

Regarding exporting-only enterprises, agriculture, forestry and fishing (20.2%), mining and quarrying (19.8%) and transportation and storage (15.3%) were the activities with the highest shares, while construction (4.6%), real estate activities (6.5%) and electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply (6.6%) had the lowest shares.