Austria: Declining yields mean more imports

Austrian fields grew less grain, fruit, vegetables and potatoes in 2013/14. To compensate for the decline in the harvests and to meet the domestic demand, significantly more fruit and vegetables had to be imported from abroad. This was registered by the Austrian statistical office (Statistik Austria) on the yearly balance. The Austrians consumed more fruits and potatoes. A detail: only the sugar consumption decreased. Crop production declined in the past season with the exception of sugar beets, seeds for vegetable oil, and wine.

Increased import
2.52 million metric tonnes of cereals were imported to meet the Austrian demand, an increase of 26 percent. The fruit and vegetable import increased three percent to 1.38 million metric tonnes, the import of potatoes by 16 percent to 222,000 metric tonnes; and the purchase of oilseeds rose by 24 percent to 567,700 tonnes and that of vegetable oils by five percent to 338,400 metric tonnes. However, the wine imports fell by two percent to 812,400 hectolitres.

Balance of payments
The agricultural trading volumes, plant and animal products, have increased in the season 2013/14 from 19.7 billion Euro to 20.3 billion Euro. The value of imported goods increased from 10.3 billion to 10.7 billion Euro. The value of the export volume increased from 9.4 billion to 9.6 billion Euro. Cereals, fruit and vegetables largely came from EU countries and were exported to EU markets.

Consumption per capita
Each Austrian has eaten, on average, 113.4 kg vegetables in the season 2013/14. Thus, the consumption was at the same level of 2012/13. The fruit consumption increased from 75.5 kilograms to 78 kilograms. The consumption of potatoes increased by 2.3 kilos to 48.9 kilos per year. In contrast, the consumption of wheat and rye flour, rice and sugar diminished. Sugar consumption dropped from 37.1 to 36 kg, the decrease of the rice consumption by 0.1 kilos to 4.3 kilos is only marginal.

Source: www.kurier.at