MADAM – Recently there have been several national press reports claiming that the UK is the world’s largest exporter of ivory. I felt your readers should know that this is not accurate.
As you would expect of the world’s second largest art market, the UK’s exports of worked antique ivory carvings and objects containing antique ivory are large, but not necessarily the largest. In 2015 Italy exported 7,827 carvings, while the UK exported 2,514.
However, those figures ignore the old ivory tusks exported lawfully from other EU member states in recent years, something the UK does not permit.