Global tomato trade grew 4.6% in 2017

The world’s tomato trade was worth US$9.16 billion in 2017, a 4.6% rise from 2016, but a drop of 0.9% from 2013. The EU imported $5.8 billion worth of the total (63.4%), followed by North America (28.5%), Asia (7.4%), Africa (0.3%), Latin America (0.3%) and Oceania (0.1%). In terms of countries, the US was far and away the world’s number-one importer of tomatoes in 2017, with volumes received totalling around US$2.5 billion – an increase of 2% on 2016. The next largest tomato importer was Germany, with imports remaining flat at US$1.48 billion. The fastest-growing markets since 2013 is Belarus (+229.1%), Spain (+120%), France (+17.7%) and Canada (+10.3%). Four countries recorded falls in imported tomato volumes: Russia (-49.4%), Belgium (-23.4%), the Netherlands (-10%) and Sweden (-1.7%).