Spaniards are consuming less fresh vegetables

Spain

Tuesday 16 July 2024

In 2023, fresh vegetable consumption in Spanish households has decreased by 2.6%.

In 2023, household consumption of fresh vegetables reached 48.92 kilograms per person per year, representing a decrease of 2.6% compared to the previous year, equivalent to consuming approximately 1.3 kilograms less. Moreover, this represents a 14% drop compared to 2019, before the pandemic.

Despite this decrease in consumption, per capita spending on fresh vegetables increased by 7.5%, reaching 114.89 euros per person per year, according to data from the Report on Food Consumption in Spain 2023. In the last five years, since 2019, the year before the pandemic, the reduction in per capita vegetable consumption has been 14%.

The decline in consumption began years earlier, with the exception of the significant increase during the pandemic year in 2020. In recent years, there has been a continuous decline in household consumption of fresh vegetables. Comparing the 2023 figure with the first available record in MAPA statistics from 2008, the demand for fresh vegetables has decreased by 17.9%.

This downward trend in consumption affects almost all vegetables, with the exception of zucchini, which achieved a growth of 7.8% in a context of a generalized reduction in demand.

In contrast, the largest drop is observed in the purchase of green beans, which, compared to 2008, has decreased by 48.7% in volume. It is followed by lettuce, endive and chicory, with a cumulative decrease of 33.2%, and tomatoes, with a 19.3% drop in the volume of purchases.

fuente: fepex.es