Greece may be famous for its quality fruits and vegetables, but the bad weather that has prevailed in the country in recent months, in combination with some structural problems with individual product markets, has led to a considerable increase of imports. According to ELSTAT's latest data, prepared by Incofruit-Hellas, imports of fresh fruit and vegetables in the first quarter of 2019 have increased by 33.5% in terms of volume (to 244.240 tons) and by 23.4% in terms of value (to 181.75 million Euro), compared to the corresponding period of 2018. This is mainly attributed to the impact of imported vegetables. Greek consumers paid about EUR 44 million more for imported vegetables than in the corresponding period of 2018.
However, as stated by Incofruit-Hellas Special Adviser Giorgos Polychronakis, "there has been an increase in the consumption of tropical fruits (pineapples, currants, bananas, etc.) over the last three years - i.e. products that are not usually in the grocery baskets, which is a clear indication that the Greek economy has recovered and consumption is rising."
At the same time, he stressed that "fresh fruit and vegetables imports, especially those coming from third countries, have grown by 24.8% a year over the last three years, which shows that the fruit's origin no longer plays a decisive role in the purchasing decision." In fact, the import of vegetables has grown by 58.9% in terms of volume and by 74.4% in terms of value, to 163.546 tons and 102 million Euro. Growth has been recorded by potatoes, with 103.539 tons (+55.1%) and 50.46 million Euro (+129.5%); tomatoes, with 1,053 tons (+114%) and 1.25 million Euro (+78,5%) and onions, with 20,047 tons (+775.7%) and 7.85 million Euro (+1,085.8%).
According to Mr. Polychronakis, most of the potato imports come from the Egyptian market (more than 50%), followed by France (about 10,000 tons), Germany and the Netherlands. As for the impressive increase in the import of onions, most of them came from India, Egypt and Austria. In the case of fruit, imports remained at the same level. They increased by 0.9% in terms of volume (reaching 80.694 tons), but declined in terms of value by 10.2%, to 79.8 million Euro. Those imports included 57,513 tons of bananas (+0,2%), 5,020 tons of apples (+72%), 339 tons of avocados (+40.5%) and 2,877 tons of pineapples (+7.1%).
Source: ethnos.gr