Italy: Foreign fruit and vegetables trade in the first 8 months of 2012

According to the latest figures from FruitImprese, with the data of August 2012 there was a slight brake both in exports and imports of fruit and vegetables in Italy. The balance remained positive (EUR 600 million), an increase of 24.1% over the same period of 2011.

Overall, from January to August 2012, Italian companies exported 2 million 657 thousand tons (-0.3%) of fruit and vegetables, worth just over € 2 billion and € 400 million (-0.6% ).

There less exports of: vegetables (-3.5%), citrus fruits (-12.7%) and dried fruit (-1.9%). The only positive sign comes from the fresh fruit sector, which grew by 4% in exports. In terms of value, the negative trend is confirmed for vegetables and citrus fruits, while fresh fruit (+1.8%) and dried fruit (+22%) are growing.

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With regard to imports, Italy imported about 2 million and 130 thousand tons of fruit and vegetables (-1.8%) for a value of $ 1 billion and 815 thousand euro (-6.7%).

Among individual sectors, there was an increase in volume for citrus fruit (+20.9%) and vegetables (+1.8%) for all other the trend is negative: fresh fruit (-13, 4%), dried fruit (-14.8%) and tropical fruit (-6.2,%). Even in value, we see a negative sign for all sectors, with the exception of citrus fruit (+22.7%) and dried fruit (+0.2%).