German private households bought 1% more fresh vegetables in the first six months of 2012 than the year before, reports the German website Gabot.de. Despite the fact that the total amount was around 1% lower than the average over the past five years, indicated by the research done by the German Agricultural Information Company (AMI). The average purchased quantity has been decreasing each year with an average of 1% over the past ten years. The average prices for fresh vegetables hardly changed in comparison to last year. This caused the expenditure increase of around 1% to 68,42 Euro per household, which is a record.
In comparison to last year's numbers, we still have to consider the fact that the EHEC-crisis that started at the end of May 2011 ensured a clear change in consumer behavior. Consequently, German households bought around 10% more fresh vegetables in June of 2012 than the previous year, but the purchased amount was still below the long-term average.
The EHEC-crisis has had very little effect on the sale of fruit. After sales of fresh fruit had continued to decline over the past 10 years, the purchased quantities of fresh fruit in the first half of 2012 had risen slightly by 1%. German households spent a total average of 64,32 Euro on fresh fruit in the first half of this year which was around 1% less than in 2011.