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Despite increasing clouds on the horizon, there remain several bright spots for export opportunities in emerging markets.

US economic growth started to slow down last year, with GDP expected to expand 2.3% in 2019 and 1.7% in 2020.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the the leftist Morena party governs with a strong political mandate, as a Morena-led coalition has a majority in both houses of Congress.

As in 2019, Canada´s GDP growth is expected to remain below its long-term trend in 2020 due to sluggish domestic demand and lower export growth.

A hard Brexit and an escalation of EU-US trade disputes are downside risks for export-dependent food companies in the olives/olive oil and meat segments.

In the food retail sector smaller and independent businesses are struggling to remain profitable due to fierce competition and high price pressure.

Food sales growth continues, and the economic impact of the USMCA agreement on consumers and food supply chains is expected to be relatively small.

Despite efforts of food exporters to diversify shipments away from Britain a hard Brexit remains a major threat, potentially leading to more insolvencies.

In the Belgian food retail segment a comprehensive price war cannot be ruled out for the future, potentially forcing many businesses out of the market.

The ongoing drought has put additional pressure on margins industrywide due to higher input costs, and many businesses are struggling to break-even.

Larger players continue to push the supply chain on price and longer payment terms, adding cash flow challenges to mainly smaller food businesses.

While businesses´ profits are still stable and financials mainly solid, environmental issues pose a potential major challenge for agriculture and food.

Insolvencies are expected to increase by about 1%-2% in 2020, mainly in the troubled meat segment and the beverages and fruit & vegetables subsectors.

The ongoing concentration process in the domestic market will increasingly put small retailers with a poor capacity to generate cash flow under pressure.

A modest margin rebound, but commodity prices, price wars between retailers, changing consumer habits and difficulties in staff recruitment remain issues.

While several Brexit postponenements have provided food exporters with sufficient time to adapt, small retailers suffer from market price pressure.

Domestic metals and steel demand is increasingly affected by subdued investment in the construction sector and a marked demand slowdown from automotive.

Many businesses suffer from decreasing demand from key buyer sectors, high commodity prices, overcapacity, strong competition, and low profitability.

A modest increase in payment delays cannot be ruled out in the coming 12 months, but no substantial insolvency increase is expected for the industry.

The number of protracted payments and insolvencies was high in 2019, and is expected to increase further in 2020, mainly affecting private-owned producers.