N ews that Britain's imports and exports of art and antiques shrank by about a quarter in 2009 is important not only to the London salerooms and galleries.

Overseas buyers have always been a feature of our region's auction rooms and antique shops, and in the internet age that's as true as ever, even though the age of transatlantic visitors is now just a fading memory.

These latest statistics – and we promise you they will be the last this year – come courtesy of the Antiques Trade Gazette, who say that in one of the worst trading years since the early Nineties, global exports fell by 24.3 per cent to just over £2 billion, while imports dropped 26.2 per cent to £1.86 billion.

When it came to selling overseas, the magazine's figures show that the sharpest declines came in the European Union.

Remember all the white vans that shuttled back and forth constantly between here and rural France and Eastern Europe?

Those were the days, and they could roll around again, but in the meantime we have a situation in which our exports to the EU fell by 28.5 per cent to £123.7 million and imports plummeted by a bewildering 42.2 per cent to £136.6 million.

Trade with the United States is still huge, which makes any significant decline all the more alarming.

Exports there were hit badly for the second year running, with antiques declining 25.7 per cent to £186.1 million and pictures 29.3 per cent to £622.1 million.

"With the worldwide recession beginning to bite hard as 2009 began, decline in the movement of goods is hardly surprising," the ATG noted. "What was not clear until now was how much trade would be hit."

Switzerland, Europe's chief clearing house, saw a 65.5 per cent decline to £24 million in antique exports, while picture exports dropped to £406.6 million, a fall of 24.8 per cent. But the Antiques Trade Gazette has always been hot on international trends, and it has latched on to any number of them.

The first is the massive number of pictures heading for Ukraine, their value of £115.3 million being bettered only by the States and Switzerland.

The magazine accepts that this could simply be the result of vigorous activity by one or two collectors there, but it is equally intrigued by the performance of cash-strapped, near-bankrupt Greece.

Suddenly it's at the top of the EU table when it comes to pictures, taking £55 million worth from us last year.

Trade with Russia still falters, with picture exports there down nearly 70 per cent. But the United Arab Emirates and Qatar are making their mark, and single wealthy collectors put the Virgin Islands firmly on our radar in 2009.

Given that it's widely accepted that China has now taken over from the Russian oligarchs, it comes as a surprise that its antiques imports from the UK reached only £5.3 million.

So although our antiques exports to Hong Kong fell 17.5 per cent, to £23.5 million, it is still our dominant Far East trading post – and our picture exports there held up almost completely, dropping just 1.9 per cent to £30.1 million.