Argentina is strengthening its position as an agri-food supplier to the European Union. Between January and June 2026, its agribusiness exports to the EU market reached a value of $2.5 billion, 30% more than during the same period of the previous year. Volume increased considerably by 14%, reaching 4.1 million tonnes.
The difference between the two rates is particularly significant. Argentina is not only selling more products to Europe: the value of those transactions is growing at a much faster rate than tonnage.
Data processed by Argentina’s Undersecretariat for Agri-Food Markets and International Integration, based on statistics from INDEC, puts the average value of agri-food products shipped to the EU at $608 per tonne, 39% above the average achieved by Argentine agri-food exports to all markets combined.
From Sunflower to Beef: The Fastest-Growing Sectors
Growth is not concentrated in a single commodity either. The sunflower complex recorded the largest increase in value, rising 451% year on year. It was followed by tobacco, up 215%; pulses, up 167%; food ingredients, up 164%; beekeeping products, up 127%; and fisheries and aquaculture, up 112%.
Sales of sheep products and animal feed also increased, by 82%; equine products, by 55%; citrus fruits, by 52%; wine products, by 27%; and beef products, by 22%.
The European performance also forms part of an especially dynamic six-month period for Argentina’s agri-food foreign trade. According to the Argentine Agro-Industrial Council, the sector’s exports reached $26.978 billion between January and June, up 17.3%. Sunflower, beef and hides, and wheat were the complexes that contributed most to the growth.
Europe Is Buying Higher-Value Products
But there is another reading behind the figures. Some of the products Argentina sends to the EU market have very high unit values.
Seeds reached an average of $49,821 per tonne; lemon essential oil, $28,907; and fresh or chilled boneless beef, $15,100. Other high-value products include equine products, combed wool, frozen lamb, frozen crustaceans, tobacco, and extra virgin olive oil.
Lemons are a good example of this trend.
During the first four months of the year, Argentine exports of the citrus complex increased by 36% in value and 50% in volume. During this period, shipments of fresh lemons rose 129% in value, while concentrated lemon juice exports increased by 67.1%. Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Ireland and the Netherlands are among the European markets receiving this production, albeit to varying degrees.
Competition Is Also Reaching European Farms
Argentina’s advance has a second side: it increases competition within a market that also has large domestic production and established international suppliers.
In sunflower and sunflower-derived products, Argentina is entering a market in which Ukraine has maintained a dominant position as an external supplier of sunflower oil. In honey, it competes with origins such as China and Ukraine, as well as with EU production. Eurostat had already ranked Argentina as the EU’s third-largest non-EU honey supplier in 2023, accounting for 12% of imported volume.
In beef, the South American country is also competing in the higher-value segment. Argentina closed the 2025/2026 Hilton Quota cycle with virtually 100% utilisation: 29,388.86 tonnes out of the 29,389 tonnes allocated by the European Union, worth approximately $406 million.
At the same time, the European Commission reports an increase in EU beef imports during 2026, amid lower cattle availability and difficulties for European production to meet demand.
The EU-Mercosur Effect Begins to Come into Play
Against this backdrop, another factor could further reshape trade flows. As of May 1, 2026, the Interim Trade Agreement between the European Union and Mercosur has been provisionally applied, introducing tariff preferences and specific quotas for various products.
Argentina is already taking advantage of some of these opportunities. Products covered by the new quotas include honey, eggs, rice and certain types of meat. The country has also regained EU market access for fresh poultry meat after the European Commission once again recognised its favourable animal-health status with regard to highly pathogenic avian influenza.
Therefore, the first-half figures still do not allow the 30% growth to be attributed to the trade agreement: four of the six months analysed predate its entry into application. They do, however, provide a snapshot of the starting point.
Argentina enters the new trade environment with its agri-food sales to Europe growing faster than its sector’s exports as a whole, with a higher value per tonne and a product mix ranging from commodities to meat, seafood, citrus fruits and high-value-added ingredients.
The question from now on will be how much of this growth becomes consolidated and to what extent the new trading conditions allow Argentina to gain market share in a European market where EU producers and major international suppliers will be competing for the same space.
