This section provides an overview of EU and candidate countries’ reported exports and re-exports of CITES-listed species in 2012. Tridacna maxima was the species exported by the EU in the highest quantities from the wild; the majority of other wild-sourced exports were hunting trophies. Live sturgeon eggs, live plants and reptile skin pieces were the commodities exported at the highest volumes overall. The number of reptile taxa traded at high volumes increased from 19 in 2011 to 29 in 2012, mainly due to an increase in exports of snake skins and live tortoises.
Trade in artificially propagated Appendix-II plants and re-exports of manufactured articles have been excluded from the analyses in this section. Throughout the section, ‘exports’ refers to both direct exports and indirect exports (re-exports), unless otherwise specified.