Japan’s fruit imports grow despite higher prices 

Despite the current global logistics problems, Japan’s fresh fruit imports were up 1.3% in March compared with the previous year, according to Japan’s Ministry of Finance. The country imported almost 135,000 tons of fresh fruit in March 2020, despite rising prices. Japanese households purchased on average 5.61kg of fruit in March 2020, up 2.5% from the previous year. Meanwhile, expenditure increased 5.3% to US$27.

Kiwifruit recorded the greatest year-on-year growth, up 230% to 3,260 tons. This surge in demand is attributable to the earlier arrival of New Zealand fruit this year. There were also increases in most major categories, with banana volumes up 6% to 81,600 tons, pineapple up 6% to 12,200 tons and table grapes up 6% to 8,150 tons. Taking the first quarter of 2020 as a whole, Japan’s fresh fruit imports climbed 2% from the same period in 2019, importing 370,900 tons.