+33 680 38 14 46
Decline of fruits imports in the European Union
Belgium
Thursday 15 April 2010
FJ
The imports of fruits sharply decreased while the imports of vegetables remain stable.
Freshfel Europe has today released key figures for EU fruit and vegetable import trade trends, based on Eurostat data. While the 2009 volume and value of fruit imports from third countries into the EU decreased significantly by 7.13% and 5.77% respectively.
The 2009 import volume and value of vegetables is relatively stable with only a slight increase by 0.45% and 1.45% respectively.
“This data confirms the careful approach of EU importers in a year of a complex market situation, low prices on the EU market and stagnating consumption” stated Ramon Rey, President of Freshfel Europe.
Bananas remain by far the most imported fruit in 2009 with more than 4.5 Mln T, but the volume is down by 7.46% compared to the previous year. Pineapples are ranked second with close to 880,000 T imported in the EU.
Regarding the fruit and vegetable category as a whole, the main trading partners of the EU for fruit imports in 2009 remain the banana suppliers, led by Costa Rica which accounts for 13.4% of the overall volume, followed by Ecuador (12.4%) and Colombia (11.2%). Southern Hemisphere countries come next with South Africa (9.6%) and Chile (6%).
Looking at vegetable imports, the main trading partners of the EU are in the neighbouring Mediterranean region, specifically Morocco accounting for 33.2% of the overall volume in 2009, Turkey (15%), Israel (11%) and Egypt (5.1%).
Source : freshfel Europe
