Italy sees record fruit & veg consumption in 2017
Despite an annual growth rate of only 4%, the sales growth was achieved in a situation of bad weather (frost) that hit Italy earlier this year, causing many production, logistics and distribution problems.
In detail, about 1.3 million tonnes of fruit and vegetables were sold, of which more than 711,000 tonnes was fruit (+4%) and over 590,000 tonnes was vegetables (+5%). For both macro categories, the January to February 2017 figures were the highest in the history recorded by CSO Italy (since 2000).
The Italians were not discouraged by the increase in the average prices of fruit and vegetables in the reference period to €1.62/kg (+3% over 2016). Specifically, fruit was purchased on average at €1.47/kg (+2%) and vegetables at €1.80/kg (+3%). On average, the adverse climate affected prices of zucchini (+11%), tomatoes (+7%), eggplants (+6%) and fennel, peppers and radishes (+5%).
source: esmmagazine.com
