The 2016 edition of Fruit Logistica - one of the main events where European operators working in the fruit and vegetable sector meet every year - will start soon.
But how are things between Germany and Italy? The German market is still one of the main outlets for many Italian products and absorbs around 30% - i.e. almost 1.1 million tons - of fresh produce exports. However, trends show that there has been a slow decrease in the last few years, just think that 40% of total exports were shipped to Germany in 2000.
In 2014, in fact, the 5% increase in total exports was met by a 4% drop of German imports. Between January and October 2015 (latest data available), direct shipments to the German market did grow by 3% with respect to 2013 but there was also a +4% of total Italian exports.
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For what concerns fruit, apples, peaches and nectarines, table grapes, pears and watermelons are the main products sent to Germany. The first 5 represent 85% of the total fresh fruit exported to Germany over the last seven years.
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For what concerns fruit, apples, peaches and nectarines, table grapes, pears and watermelons are the main products sent to Germany. The first 5 represent 85% of the total fresh fruit exported to Germany over the last seven years.
The different products follow different trends - apple quantities are almost constant (around 260,000 annual tons), just like table grapes (around 110,000 ton) and pears (almost 65,000 ton). Peaches and nectarines have seen a decrease from around 145 thousand to 110 thousand tons. Kiwis saw a slightly lower decrease (below 60 thousand annual tons), just like strawberries (less than 7 thousand tons). Shipments of watermelons seem to be on the up (from 40 thousand to around 70 thousand tons) and the same goes for plums (above 16 thousand tons a year), apricots (over 11 thousand tons) and melons (8 thousand tons).
In the first ten months of 2015, all volumes increased except for pears.
Oranges, lemons and clementines are the mostly exported citrus fruits. Orange volumes reach 37,000 tons a year on average, lemons seem to be stable at 15,000 tons and clementines vary between 5,000 and 8,000 tons depending on the season.
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Between January and October 2015, exported volumes of oranges and lemons seem to have decreased, while clementines seem to be more in line with 2014.
For what concerns vegetables, lettuce, tomatoes, cabbages, carrots and beets. In 2007, these products represented over 70% of all vegetable exports, but the percentage dropped to 57% in 2014.
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There has been a drop in volumes for many products. Among those not included in the chart, there was a good increase especially for fennel, courgettes, onions and spring onions.
Potato volumes continue to decrease year after year so much so that, in 2014, the volume dropped to 50,000 tons, less than half the volume or seven years prior.
In general, vegetable exports to Germany have seen a further 2% drop in January/October 2015 with respect to 2014. There has only been a slight increase for potatoes, lettuce and carrot while volumes of tomatoes, cabbage and beet have dropped considerably.
Full article available at www.csoservizi.com
Source: CSO for FreshPlaza