Data Sources
Food industry:
Trade data was sourced from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations: Detailed Trade Matrix, Crops, Live Animals, Livestock Primary.
The Office for National Statistics was the source for data on weekly food spending by food item and place of purchase and pound sterling to US dollar exchange rates. Information on GDP deflators was sourced from HM Treasury.
Textile industry:
Data on import/export trade of textile in the UK, CPI, and consumer trends were sourced from ONS. Company information was sourced from the Global Apparel Facilities and related company websites. WRAP's National Household Waste Composition was also referred to in the research.
Wood industry:
Import and export data on raw wood was sourced from FAO, while that on the different types of wood was from the UN Comtrade Database. Data on the UK population was sourced from Worldometer.
Data Processing
Trade values were converted into thousands, whenever applicable, and from dollars to pounds, using the appropriate exchange rate for a given year. Trade values adjusted for inflation in 2017 pounds were used in the analysis of over a 10-year period.
The list of ISO 3166 country codes was used as a reference for the total number of countries and territories because it is comprehensive.