EU imports of fruits and vegetables from third countries up 5% in 2017

According to Eurostat, imports to the EU of fruits and vegetables from third countries rose by 5% in 2017 to 15.5 million tons. About 13.3 million tons of the total imports were fruits (+6%) and 2.2 million tons were vegetables (+1%). The main imported products are banana (5.9 million tons, +7%), orange (1.1 million tons, +11%) and pineapple (941,000 tons, +11%). Other significant imports were apples (448,000 tons, +1%) and avocados (486,000 tons, +9%).

The main vegetable import to the EU is tomato (568,000 tons, +8%), with volumes growing steadily over the past five years. Morocco is the leading supplier of non-EU tomatoes, with volumes of 405,000 tons representing 71% of the total. Other key vegetable products imported to the EU are potato (430,000 tons, +14%), onion (243,000 tons, +8%), peppers (230,000 tons, -1%) and green beans (189,000 tons, -6%).

Overall, vegetable imports are highly concentrated in a small number of products while the range of imported fruit is much broader.